A Comparative Study On The Official Kuomintang Media "Central Daily" And "Reference News"

The official media is an important propaganda tool serving the government agencies.Due to different propaganda targets,there are slight differences in report content and implicit current affairs evaluations.Central Daily and Reference News,as two official mediums facing different groups during the period of the Nanjing Nationalist Government,the former is aimed at the general public,while the latter is aimed at senior Kuomintang officials.The similarities and differences between this kind of public propaganda and confidential reports with the characteristics of Reference News in terms of current affairs and hotspots of the same subject matter,this is the important reason for this paper to choose the official media propaganda of Sino-US negotiation during the Huaihai Campaign as a case study.The Huaihai Campaign,which lasted for 65 days from November 6,1948 to January 10,1949,occupies an important position in China’s military history.The report of Sino-US negotiation during the campaign was an important focus of the Kuomintang officials,the general public and the public opinion.With the development of different stages of the campaign,the contents reported by the Central Daily and Reference News also had obvious changes,and the propaganda of the two official media was not completely consistent.Since Central Daily represents the interests of the Kuomintang,almost all the reports on American aid to China hold a supportive attitude and show the determination of the United States to stick to the aid.At the beginning of the Huaihai Campaign the Huang Baitao Corps was annihilated from November 6 to 22,1948.Because the research sample belongs to a special time frame,as a Party newspaper,Central Daily is almost the same as Reference News in terms of number.In terms of focus,the two state media mainly focus on the US attitude towards China.Since Central Daily represents the interests of the Kuomintang,almost all the reports on American aid to China hold a supportive attitude,and show the determination of the United States to stick to the aid.Reference News reports on the attitude of China aid are divided.Compared with the Central Daily,Reference News also carried diversified reports on the evacuation of American citizens from China and speculations on the evolution of the situation in China.Huang Baitao committed suicide and declared the Communist Party’s victory in the first phase of the Huaihai Campaign,the middle and late period lasted from November23,1948 to January 10,1949.In terms of the number of reports during this period,Central Daily was almost twice as many as Reference News.On the topic of the report,on the issue of American aid to China,Central Daily reported the material aid and public opinion aid from the United States.As the news selection of the Central Daily was strictly controlled by the Kuomintang government,it would give priority to the needs of the government when reporting the contents related to the Kuomintang.The report on American aid to China in Reference News generally shows agreement.It can be concluded that the attitudes of various classes in the United States on aid are inconsistent.Song Meiling’s visit to the United States for assistance is the most important report on Sino-US negotiations between the two state media in the middle and late stages of the Huaihai Campaign,and it is also a typical case of inconsistent propaganda reports between the two state media.Central Daily mainly reported the American people’s welcoming attitude towards Song Meiling and their sympathy for the National Government,and clearly informed the public of the American government’s support for the Chiang Kai-shek government.Reference News has not only the official indifferent comments on Song Meiling’s visit to the United States,but also private judgments,revealing that Song Meiling’s trip to the United States will definitely be ignored and returned without success.The propaganda orientations of the two official media are quite different.Through the propaganda reports on the Sino-US negotiations during the Huaihai Campaign,it can be found that the two official media have similarities,such as serving the Kuomintang rule and covering mostly overlapping topics.At the same time,we can also find some differences between the two official media.Central Daily mainly one-sided reports and fools for ordinary people,and the political meaning of public opinion propaganda is even stronger;Reference News is aimed at the middle and high-level officials of the Kuomintang and is not disclosed to the outside world.It is a "state secret." In addition,many reports directly refer to foreign communications.The reports are relatively comprehensive and objective,revealing more important information that ordinary people cannot know.This result is closely related to the different audiences of the Kuomintang’s news control and distribution.