'! NUMBER 6- 1984 (65) CANKAO-XIAOXI: FOREIGN NEWS IN THE PROPAGANDA SYSTEM OF THE I • PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA : Jorg-Meinhard Rudolph School of LAw ()~ MAayi.ANd. ' Occasional Papers/Reprint Series in Contemporary Asian Studies General Editor: Hungdah Chiu Executive Editor: Mitchell A. Silk Managing Editor: Shirley Lay Editorial Advisory Board Professor Robert A. Scalapino, University of California at Berkeley Professor Martin Wilbur, Columbia University Professor Gaston J. Sigur, George Washington University Professor Shao-chuan Leng, University of Virginia Professor Lawrence W. Beer, Lafayette College Professor James Hsiung, New York University Dr. Lih-wu Han, Political Science Association of the Republic of China Professor J. S. Prybyla, The Pennsylvania State University Professor Toshio Sawada, Sophia University, Japan Professor Gottfried-Karl Kindermann, Center for International Politics, University of Munich, Federal Republic of Germany Professor Choon-ho Park, College of Law and East Asian Law of the Sea Institute, Korea University, Republic of Korea Published with the cooperation of the Maryland International Law Society All contributions (in English only) and communications should be sent to Professor Hungdah Chiu, University of Maryland School of Law, 500 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201 USA. All publications in this series refiect only the views of the authors. While the editor accepts responsibility for the selection of materials to be published, the individual author is responsible for statements of facts and expressions of opinion contained therein. Subscription is US $15.00 for 6 issues (regardless of the price of individual issues) in the United States and Canada and $20.00 for overseas. Check should be addressed to OPRSCAS and sent to Professor Hungdah Chiu. Price for single copy of this issue: US $5.00 © 1984 by Occasional Papers/Reprint Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, Inc. ISSN 0730-0107 ISBN 0-942182-67-7 CANKAO XIAOXI: FOREIGN NEWS IN THE PROPAGANDA SYSTEM OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Jorg-Meinhard Rudolph* TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface....................................................... 2 1. Foreign News in Communist Society-The Point of Departure. 4 2. Cankao Xiaoxi-Reference News.. 12 A. Introduction..................................... 12 B. PRC Coverage . 21 C. Coverage of PRC Domestic Affairs. 35 D. Coverage of PRC External Affairs . 57 3. Conclusions: The Impact of the Reference News. 83 4. Communist China's Reference System-A Look Be­ hind the Neibu Curtain . 93 Notes......................................................... 115 Appendices I. Chinese text of Cankao Xiaoxi subscription advertisement........................................ 131 2. "China's Cankao Xiaoxi"-Text of a Reuters Dispatch on the Reference News (published by the latter on Oc- tober 23, 1981) ....................................... 132 3. Riference News Coverage of Situation in Hong Kong 133 4. Riference News Coverage of Sino-Indian Relations .. 136 5. Riference News Coverage of Sino-American Relatiocs . 145 6. Chinese titles for list of classified publications . 160 Index......................................................... 161 • M.A. in Sinology (Freie Universitlit Berlin). Mr. Rudolph was an editor and translator in Peking with a Chinese propaganda unit from 1980-82. He presently is a lecturer at Ostasiatisches Seminar (East Asian Institute) of the Freie U niversitlit Berlin, and is completing his Ph.D. dissertation on the Taiwan Policy of the Chinese Communist Party from 1921-1981. Editors Note: Question marks appearing in translations throughout this study de­ note the unavailability of resources to offer the most accurate translations of names and journal titles. Efforts were made to eschew obscurity. (I) 2 CONTEMPORARY ASIAN STUDIES SERIES PREFACE For the last 20 years or so, the Chinese language d~ily newspa­ per Cankao Xiaoxi (hereafter referred to as Reference News) has been the cause of amazement and curiosity among Western corre­ spondents in Peking as well as Western scholars studying the polit­ ical system of the People's Republic of China. While the journalists are mainly interested in finding out whether one of their reports or commentaries was translated and reprinted in Reference News, the main obstacle for scholarly research on the function and purpose of this newspaper has been the lack of sufficient first-hand material. The present study is based on more than 200 consecutive issues of the Reference News, starting with August 1, 1981 and ending with March 11, 1982. The available material is not only fairly compre­ hensive, but also is relatively recent so as to allow some basic conclu­ sions on the paper's present purpose and function. The analysis will also shed some light on the methods by which the Reference News editors seek to achieve their objectives. In view of the immense variety of topics covered in the copies available-ranging from national and international politics to social and scientific affairs, culture, sports as well as news of a more enter­ taining character, the study is limited to certain outstanding events dealt with in the Reference News. But which topics are best suited to lay bare the paper's purpose and function? Which topic of the paper's coverage would be the most promis­ ing? No doubt, it would be interesting to analyze its coverage of the acute crisis of legitimacy in Poland which reached a dangerous cli­ max in the period under survey. Just as interesting would be an analysis of what the Reference News readership learned about other countries, for instance the Soviet Union or the United States. How­ ever, an analysis of these topics would leave us with a problem that we are not yet in a position to solve, namely what the PRC reader­ ship thinks of these questions. One can be sure that they certainly know literally nothing about the structure and mechanisms of West­ em political systems. What idea do PRC citizens have of a parlia­ ment? Of a political opposition? Do they think of the latter as of some sort of counter-revolutionary faction? Do PRC citizens realize the difference between Western trade-unions and their own institu­ tions with the same name? When I finally decided to limit the scope of the present study to an analysis of the Reference News coverage on the People's Republic of China, it was partly to avoid these and related uncertainties. Nev­ ertheless, the problem that remains is one of principle which has to CANKAO XlAOXI 3 be kept in mind when reading this study. We do not know what idea Reference News readers have of Western democracies and their insti­ tutions, and consequently we do not know how reports from Western sources are reflected in the minds of PRC citizens. Would they as­ sume, for example, that news agencies such as UPI, AP, Reuters, etc., are-like the Xinhua News Agency-state-owned propoganda tools? What idea do readers of the Reference News have of the sig­ nificance of news on the PRC in the Western press? The main reason for the decision to focus on the PRC coverage of the Reference News w~s that this topic makes up the majority of the paper's reprints on politics. No other single nation is so fre­ quently referred to as Communist China. One may assume, there­ fore, that this part of the paper might even be the raison-d'etre of its publication. Apart from this, there is still the amazingly great inter­ est that PRC cadres, Communist or not, have in the outside world's opinion of their country. Everybody who is concerned with so­ called classified (neibu--internal) PRC materials, will sooner or later face the peculiarity that a considerable part of their space is devoted to translations of foreign reports on Communist China. The Refer­ ence News readership, no doubt, shares this narcissist tendency, and related reprints are indeed read with far more interest than many others. Finally, the PRC coverage is, of course, the politically most sensitive part of the paper. The less CPC interests are affected, the more objectivity can be expected from the related coverage. There­ fore, the final clue as to the role of the Reference News in the Com­ munist propaganda system is mainly to be found in its PRC coverage. The stability of CPC rule in mainland China is largely a func­ tion of how efficient the propaganda is. In this connection, further research on the Reference News will prove to be highly promising. Its function in stabilizing the Communist regime should be studied by analyzing its development in relation to the history of PRC do­ mestic politics. It would be unrenouncable, however, to get an idea of what the several millions of the paper's readership think of its content. I thank Professor Hungdah Chiu and Professor Ying-Mao Kau for their support of this study as well as for their critical suggestions. Berlin, February 1984 Jorg-Meinhard Rudolph 4 CONTEMPORARY ASIAN STUDIES SERIES 1. Foreign News in Communist Society-The Point of Departure On December 7, 1981, the Chinese language daily newspaper Cankao Xiaoxi, (Reference News), published an advertisement for subscriptions in 1982. In the text, the paper was introduced as follows: Subscriptions to the Reference News Welcome. The Reference News is a comprehensive internal publica­ tion that is read by domestic cadres and intellectuals on all fronts. Every day and fairly fast, the Reference News carries a selection of news and commentaries from the press and news agencies of all countries; it reports all-round and cur­ rent news on politics, military affairs, economics, educa­ tion, science and technology, hygiene, sports, etc. from all countries and regions of the world, as well as news from Hong Kong and Taiwan. It broadens the outlook of the readers and their understanding and knowledge of the world. The Reference News will further expand its coverage and will report more comprehensively and currently on the situation in all regions of the world.