Deng Xiaoping pays attention to and guides the work of newspapers and periodicals.

Deng Xiaoping has always believed that newspaper propaganda is an important leadership method. After he became a senior leader of the Party and the army, even though he didn’t personally create and edit newspapers and periodicals, he did not forget to pay attention to the development of newspapers and periodicals in the busy work of party affairs and military affairs, or led the creation of new newspapers and periodicals, or guided the propaganda of newspapers and periodicals, and wrote articles for newspapers and periodicals from time to time.

During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, Deng Xiaoping served as the deputy director of the Eighth Route Army Political Department and presided over the daily work of the Political Department. In the years of war and smoke, he paid great attention to the news propaganda, and proposed to strengthen the strength of reporters embedded in the army as much as possible, to "greatly strengthen the foreign propaganda work, and to reflect our real combat life to the international world, spread it to overseas Chinese and spread it to the rear area through literary and artistic works, reportage, news communication, photography and painting".

Deng Xiaoping also published articles such as Mobilizing Recruits and Political Work for Recruits in Frontline Weekly published by the General Political Department. After the publication of the Eighth Route Army Military and Political Magazine, the organ publication of the Eighth Route Army General Political Department, he also wrote important military and political writings for the magazine. In July 1940, Frontline Monthly, published by the Eighth Route Army Field Political Department, was founded, and he was one of the editorial boards of the magazine. In October 1943, Deng Xiaoping served as the acting secretary of the Northern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, taking charge of the party and government work in the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan border area, and the press industry in this area also developed vigorously. The more important newspapers are Xinhua Daily North China Edition (and Tainan Edition, Taihang Edition, Taiyue Edition, etc.), Shanxi-Hebei-Henan Daily, Hebei-Shandong-Henan Daily, Chinese Daily, Battlefield Weekly, etc., while there are more kinds of small newspapers issued by various organs, organizations, districts and counties, totaling about forty or fifty kinds. In terms of publications, there are as many as thirty or forty kinds.

Deng Xiaoping not only pays close attention to the propaganda work of newspapers and periodicals, but also publishes Two Fronts Behind the Enemy Lines and Mourning for Ding Si in Yan ‘an’s Liberation Daily, Liberation Weekly, Eighth Route Army Military and Political Magazine, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan’s Xinhua Daily, North China Edition, Party Life, Anti-Japanese Battlefield and Chongqing’s Xinhua Daily and People Weekly.

In 1947, when he led the army to the Dabie Mountains, the living conditions of the troops were extremely difficult. Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the more difficult it was, the more we could not abandon the propaganda work. He believes that propaganda work is the biggest political work at present, an indispensable condition for uniting the majority of the people around our party and army, and a major means of arming the people’s minds. "Extensive use of all propaganda weapons (propaganda by propaganda teams, theatrical troupes, army commanders, government announcements, conferences, symposiums, lectures, art exhibitions, etc.) to publicize our ideas and policies and refute the rumors and deception of the enemy can occupy the ideological position and stabilize.

In the decisive stage of the War of Liberation, Deng Xiaoping and Liu Bocheng led their troops south, courageously and invincible, and successively liberated Nanjing, Shanghai and other big cities, and quickly published Nanjing Xinhua Daily and Shanghai Liberation Daily.

After the founding of New China, Deng Xiaoping directly led and planned the publication of party newspapers in Southwest China, especially in Sichuan Province. On November 23rd, 1949, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Southwest Bureau was established, and Deng Xiaoping became the first secretary. He handed the headline of Xinhua Daily, inscribed by President Mao Zedong, to the personnel who organized the newspaper of Southwest Bureau, and instructed them to March to Chongqing with the army. On November 30th, Chongqing was liberated. On December 10th, Southwest Xinhua Daily met its readers. At the end of December, in order to stabilize prices, he instructed Xinhua Daily to publish the discount units in Chongqing every day, so that the broad masses could know the quotations of oil, salt and rice. He not only gave instructions to the work of the newspaper many times, but also personally reviewed and revised the important speeches of the newspaper, and also reviewed and revised the manuscripts of many journalists. When reading the press release of the conference, he often crossed out his speech and said, "The news should be shorter."

On May 16, 1950, in the report of the Southwest News Work Conference, Deng Xiaoping elaborated on the importance, nature and tasks of news editing and publishing, and how to run newspapers well. This is his famous speech on news publishing. He pointed out: "publishing newspapers, broadcasting, publications and pamphlets, while closely integrating with practice and central tasks, is more effective, broader and more effective than other methods in implementing the leadership intention." He believes that newspaper propaganda has a special effect because of its wide range of radiation. "Holding a pen is the main method of leadership. Leading comrades should learn to hold a pen. Meeting is a kind of leadership method and necessary, but there are always a few people attending the meeting. Even if a big report is made, only a few hundred people will listen. Individual conversation is also a kind of leadership method, but it can only be’ individual’. The most extensive way to achieve leadership is to use a pen. Writing with a pen will spread widely, and after writing, the thoughts will be refined and more thorough. " In view of the fact that some leaders don’t attach importance to news work, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the key to running a newspaper well lies in leaders’ attention: "There are three conditions for running a newspaper well, namely, combining reality, connecting with the masses, criticism and self-criticism. Without the leadership, these three articles will not work well, and newspapers will have no power and will easily become’ what is heard must be recorded’. " He encouraged, "Xinhua Daily has made progress recently." Emphasize that "the premise of running a newspaper well lies in leadership", and advocate leading comrades to write articles for newspapers in person and practice them. On October 1 of the same year,He published a short article "The Founding of the People’s Republic of China in Southwest China" in Xinhua Daily, and reviewed and summarized his work in the past year.

In 1953, Deng Xiaoping was transferred to the central government and became one of the main members of the first generation of the party’s leading collective. While busy, he reads a lot of newspapers every day and participates in reviewing important editorials of People’s Daily. In the sixties and seventies, he was overthrown twice and rose twice. Reading newspapers became one of his main sources of information.

After Deng Xiaoping’s third comeback in 1977, he became the core of the second generation of leading collective of the CPC Central Committee. He has a closer relationship with the newspaper. On May 11th, 1977, Guangming Daily published a famous article "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth". This epoch-making article has the clear support of Deng Xiaoping. The article wrote: "The criterion for testing truth can only be social practice." "The unity of theory and practice is one of the most basic principles of Marxism." Deng Xiaoping criticized the viewpoint of "two whatevers" for many times, and supported the discussion on the standard of truth in the newspaper … One stone stirred up a thousand waves. With the help of this immortal work in the influential and authoritative Central Party newspaper, Deng Xiaoping set off a wave of theory and practice of "emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts", and the great liberation of thought gave birth to great changes in reform and opening up.

Later, Deng Xiaoping repeatedly emphasized that "our party’s newspapers and periodicals should become the ideological center of national stability and unity" and demanded that "party newspapers and periodicals must unconditionally publicize the party’s ideas". (Meng Hong)

(Excerpted from A Survey of Party History)