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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8316
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 011756 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/09/2031 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI KCUL CH
SUBJECT: MEDIA TESTS LIMITS ON COVERING LEADERS'  PERSONAL 
LIVES 
 
 
Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Internal Unit 
Chief Susan A. Thornton.  Reasons 1.4 (b/d). 
 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (C) The envelope-pushing Southern Weekend 
newspaper recently challenged a longstanding taboo on 
reporting on the private lives of retired leaders when 
it published a retrospective on the activities of 
Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, and other recently-retired 
leaders.  Embassy contacts said that the paper was 
testing the limits of media guidance by running the 
story, but noted that guidelines are often ignored if 
the topics are not core Party issues and are handled 
with tact.  One contact close to the paper said that 
Southern Weekend was criticized for the article by 
Guangdong media authorities at the behest of the 
Central Propaganda Department, but that there were no 
further repercussions.  He explained that there is a 
de-facto loosening of taboos on coverage of leaders' 
personal lives in line with the Party's efforts to 
institutionalize limits on top leaders' tenure in 
office.  Another contact said current relations 
between the Government and media are a negotiation, 
with the Central Propaganda Department asserting its 
interests along with those of other bureaucratic 
players.  End Summary. 
 
Rare Inside Look at Leaders 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) The Southern Weekend feature on retired 
leaders, carried on the front page of its May 11 
edition, not only provided details on former leaders' 
private lives, but reported the names of close 
relatives and friends.  Jiang's activities were 
highlighted under a large color picture of the group 
of former leaders while still in office and an 
editor's note in bold type stating that the paper had 
relied on previously published reports and its own 
interviews to give readers a glimpse of what life is 
like for the leaders now and "how they are getting 
along."  The description of Jiang's activities was 
followed by vignettes on former National People's 
Congress Chairman Li Peng, former Premier Zhu Rongji, 
former Chinese People's Political Consultative 
Conference Chairman Li Ruihuan and former Vice Premier 
Li Lanqing on internal pages.  The editors expressed 
regret that they did not have enough information to 
include a piece on former head of the Party's Central 
Discipline Inspection Commission Wei Jianxing. 
 
Testing the Limits 
------------------ 
 
¶3.  (C) Well-connected journalists confirmed to 
Poloffs the highly unusual nature of the article, but 
said Southern Weekend had not asked permission to 
publish the piece and was testing the limits of Party 
strictures on covering the private lives of retired 
leaders.  Fang Jinyu (protect), former Beijing bureau 
chief of Southern Weekend and currently head of the 
Southern Daily Media Group's Beijing office, said the 
paper's editor-in-chief, who was himself generally 
reluctant to challenge the censors' limits, calculated 
that since much of the information had already 
appeared in Chinese media, he had a measure of 
political cover. 
 
¶4.  (C) Nonetheless, according to Fang, the Central 
Propaganda Department ordered the paper's 
administrative superior, the Guangdong Provincial 
Party Committee's Southern Dily Media Group, to 
investigate the incident. Fang himself drafted the 
investigative report that concluded the paper had 
violated propaganda guidance that provincial papers 
are permitted to carry only Xinhua reports on central 
leaders.  Fang said no further action was taken 
against the paper and that the chief editor's high 
stature in the Guangdong media world might have been a 
factor.  As the former deputy director of the 
provincial propaganda department and director of the 
provincial Party committee's information bureau, the 
editor retains considerable influence.  Further 
attesting to the low-key handling of the matter, He 
Jiangtao (protect), a journalist and editor for the 
Guangdong magazine Southern Window, called media 
contacts in Guangdong in the presence of Poloffs and 
was told the paper had not been criticized and was not 
 
BEIJING 00011756  002 OF 002 
 
 
in trouble. 
 
Line Becoming Fuzzy 
------------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) A slight loosening of taboos on coverage of 
retired leaders' personal lives in the past two years 
may have emboldened the paper's editor to take the 
risk in publishing the story.  Zhang Guangyou 
(protect), former chief editor of Farmer's Daily and 
longtime embassy contact said the paper had not only 
protected itself by portraying the leaders in a very 
positive light, but was likely mindful of changes in 
the broader media environment.  Zhang noted that Zhu 
Rongji "talks a lot" to people in Party circles and 
that media had previously publicized Li Ruihuan's 
charitable activity and Li Peng's books.  In fact, 
much of the information recounted in the Southern 
Weekend piece had appeared in provincial Party papers, 
wire services, and institutional websites, while 
retired leaders' personal recollections of their 
government service have been reported in mainstream 
media and are displayed for sale in major bookstores. 
Since January, for example, Li Peng's memoirs of his 
tenure in the National People's Congress was promoted 
by China's official news agency Xinhua, Jiang Zemin's 
visit to his alma mater Jiaotong University in 
Shanghai was given high-profile treatment on the 
university's website, and Li Ruihuan's financial aid 
to poor university students was given major play in 
the Tianjin Party committee daily. 
 
The Shifting Ground of Media Control 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  (C) Providing the broader context for official 
reaction to the Southern Weekend story, Fang said the 
Party had recently severely tightened controls on 
media coverage of "core" issues but actually loosened 
its grip on "minor" issues.  Coverage of leaders' 
private lives was increasingly considered a minor 
issue, if handled appropriately, and was related to 
the political issue of abolishing lifetime tenure for 
senior leaders.  To underscore his point, Fang noted 
he had recently written another investigative report 
at the behest of propaganda authorities severely 
criticizing a Guangdong magazine, Southern Weekly on 
Prominent Personalities (Nanfang Renwu Zhoukan), for 
violating media rules on a "core" issue.  It had run a 
piece on the 10th Panchen Lama's daughter and might be 
shut down as a result. 
 
¶7.  (C) He said that a paper like Southern Weekend is 
constantly in a "danger zone," disclosing that he was 
asked to resign as the paper's Beijing bureau chief a 
year ago to lower the paper's profile after he wrote 
an article exposing corruption among high-level 
officials in Guangdong charitable organizations.  Fang 
also said Southern Weekend had tested the limits on 
leadership coverage once before, shortly after Hu 
Jintao came to power, when it published personal 
details on the new Party leader.  At the behest of his 
superiors, Fang profusely apologized to central 
propaganda authorities and as a result there was never 
any written censure. 
 
¶8.  (C) He Jiangtao separately agreed that the 
Southern Weekend editor had taken a calculated risk, 
but said that Party taboos on some sensitive topics 
are often ignored.  He explained that editors assess 
the risks, make the call, and wait to see what 
happens.  He described the context of media control as 
akin at times to a bargaining arena, with the Central 
Propaganda Department asserting its interests along 
with those of other bureaucratic players. 
RANDT