The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, has urgently stopped delivering newspapers after omitting the name of Chinese President Xi Jinping in a recent commentary.
According to a Hong Kong Myungbo report on the 4th, on the evening of the 30th of last month, a commentary was published in the People’s Daily that said, “Unity and struggle are the only way for the Chinese people to create great achievements in history.”
In the 6th line of the 7th paragraph of the commentary at the time, “The party center with comrades as the core… The name ‘Xi Jinping’ is missing in front of the sentence. It should have been written as ‘Comrade Xi Jinping’, but only ‘Comrade’ was used.
Immediately after the newspaper company recognized this fact, the delivery of the newspaper was abruptly stopped and the printed copy was destroyed. However, the newspapers that had already been delivered were not recovered. Instead, a notice was issued stating that the newspaper should be sealed and destroyed and not leaked to society.
The Hong Kong Myungbo explained that news of the People’s Daily’s printing accident spread quickly during this process, and photos of the newspaper with the name ‘Xi Jinping’ missing were also released.
According to Myeongbo, an official from the People’s Daily said that the accident was discovered inside the newspaper and quickly dealt with, but that it was eventually known to the outside world and that the person in charge would be dealt with appropriately.
Previously, on December 30, 2010, the People’s Daily published an article that incorrectly spelled the last letter of then Premier Wen Jiabao’s name, ‘bo’, as ‘sil’. The People’s Daily checked the error after the article was closed and corrected it in the next printing, but it was after the misprinted article had already spread through the Internet.
Right after that, Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun reported, “There are also rumors that 17 People’s Daily officials were punished for misrepresenting Chinese characters by Prime Minister Wen.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.