Taiwan Today

The motor is on. Morale is high. All Central Daily News staff members are psychologically up for the ROC newspaper's newest round of existence, a forthcoming cycle that will begin following its sixth move.

With the chaotic memories from previous historic moves as a slightly unsteadying background, the News' employees are more than a bit excited. And this move will take them to the best facilities ever—a brand new 14-story building equipped with a newly developed Chinese­-language computer-editing system.

As moving day approaches, Ma Hsin-yeh, president and executive director of the newspaper for nearly half of it's 58-year history, recalls (with more than a little nostalgia) the newspaper's tumultuous history.

It had developed in an age of turmoil. Although the newspaper was glorifying in its overall success just four years after Ma took over, he was not sure if he could successfully accomplish the mission now before him: moving the entire establishment from Nanking to Taipei, where the government of the Republic of China had established a Free Chinese bastion.

"The Chinese Communists were sweeping the mainland," Ma wrote in a supplementary edition commemorating the newspaper's 50th anniversary. "And we had to publish our newspaper every day as usual while, at the same time, gradually withdrawing all our equipment to Taiwan, where insecurity and instabili­ty were epidemic because of the deteri­orating political and military situation on the mainland."

He recalled that some patriotic colleagues, misunderstanding, hotly accused the paper's editors of caving in at the rear while bloody battles were still being fought at the front. "We had noth­ing to say. We had to fulfill our government-mandated mission to withdraw," wrote Ma.

He succeeded not only in accom­plishing his relocation task but, also, in laying a solid foundation for the newspa­per in its new home. It is now a giant in the industry, boasting a total daily circulation of more than half a million.

Founded in Shanghai on Feb. 1, 1928, the newspaper had, in fact, moved four times—and suspended publication three times—before its historic reloca­tion to Taiwan.

The first move came on Sept. 15, 1927, four and a half months before it was "founded." Yes, the time factor is correct: the move really occurred before the newspaper was formally "founded."

It was originally launched nearly six months earlier, on Mar. 22, 1927, in Hankow, Hupeh Province, in Central China, a date that is not accepted as "founding day" because the newspaper was initiated under the so-called "Wu-Han Regime," a Communist­ manipulated insurrectionary regime in the triplet city of Wuchang-Hankow-Hanyang. The News finally suspended publication and moved (for the first time) to Shanghai, where it was formally founded on Feb. 1, 1928, its present "official" birthday.

The central government's subse­quent decision to establish the nation's Capital in Nanking and to make the Cen­tral Daily News an editorial spokesman for the ruling Kuomintang political party prompted the second move—and operational suspension of publication (from Nov. 1, 1928 to Feb. 1929).

The battle for Nanking—it fell to the Japanese on Dec. 13, 1937—forced the newspaper to suspend publication and move for the third time. After publishing their final issue in Nanking, the paper's staff destroyed all equipment that might prove advantageous to enemy occupa­tion forces and, on the same day, moved westward with the central government echelons to Chungking, the wartime Chinese Capital in Szechwan Province, Southwest China.

While the move to Chungking was in progress, some of the newspaper's eager staff relaunched publication Mar. 1, 1938, in Changsha, Hunan, a neighbor province to Szechwan. They continued publishing until Sept. 1 of the same year, when Chungking offices were estab­lished and launched their own edition. Thereafter, the Changsha paper became a localized publication.

Seven years later, the unconditional surrender of the Japanese occasioned a fourth move, on Sept. 5, 1945, back to Nanking, to the compound where the paper had previously located. The News now acquired two other newspapers and a printing plant which had been con­trolled by the Japanese during the war, and within five days, on Sept. 10, the day following the Chinese government's formal acceptance of the Japanese surrender, the Central Daily News once more hit the streets.

As it had begun to do routinely, the newspaper now numbered the restored Nanking first edition consecutively from the last Chungking edition. The only exception to the uninterrupted issue­ number sequence in News history came during the period from May-Sept. 1939, when 100 issues of all Chungking newspapers were published as a united edition, a cooperative effort in the face of serious problems for all of them in the heavy Japanese bombing raids and from the war shortages of supplies.

Against this background of turbu­lence, the continuing search for journalistic talent was particularly critical, Ma recalls: "Of the many factors that make a newspaper successful, the most important is having top journalists. And the most important trait of such talented people must be loyalty—to their country, to the press, to their readers." It was such talent that assured the news­paper's survival during the years of invasion and insurrection on the mainland.

After the move to Taiwan, the paper still lacked proper facilities, machinery, and money. "But we had manpower, a corps of loyal young journalists who dedicated their lives to the newspaper. Without them, this newspaper couldn't have successfully accomplished its relo­cation to Taiwan," Ma recalls in his anniversary article.

In Taiwan, the newspaper continued to focus priority attention on its recruitment policies. Before 1956, it took on only college graduates who had worked part time for the News over summer vacations, performed well, and been strongly recommended by their professors-and then only after they had passed an internal News qualification exam.

In 1956, the growing News held its first open entrance examinations, which attracted nearly 90 participants. About one third passed the exams but, of these, only five were recruited.

Hsu Chun-wu and Brick Wang, two of the five, still work for the newspaper. Hsu became a reporter at 24. He is now director of the News' correspondent's di­vision after 30 years as a News writer and editor, and vice director of the division.

Wang, 55, was first a reporter, then vice director and director of the news division, and served as director of the in­formation division before going to Washington, D.C. as the News'top U.S. foreign correspondent.

Liu Mao-hsiung, director of News personnel, notes that all those who pass the exam and are recruited are first sent to smaller communities, then assigned to the different news beats. Their local supervisors carefully evaluate their initial performances for Taipei headquarters before they can go on to careers at the paper. Such concerned evaluation is part of the efforts to assure continuing talent identification and development.

The Central Daily News has the longest history of all ROC newspapers, a hard-won accomplishment among a long and memorable list:

—It is the only ROC newspaper whose president was once a beat reporter (Chen Tsang-po in 1932).

—It was the first Chinese newspaper to inaugurate a local edition (1937 in Lushan).

—It was the first ROC newspaper to publish an international edition (in 1950).

—It was the first ROC newspaper to contract for air delivery of its newspapers (1950 to Hongkong).

—It is the only ROC newspaper that does not make profit-making its bottomline purpose, as confirmed in the "five policies" ratified by its Board of Direc­tors in 1953; the other four are: serving as editorial spokesman for the Kuomintang, being responsibly critical, reflecting public opinion, and being con­tinuously interesting, realistic, and newsworthy.

—It exclusively reported the major air battle involving numerous planes from both sides, in which three Communist Chinese MiG-17s were shot down over the Taiwan Strait by ROC fighters, all of which returned safely (Aug. 14, 1958).

—It was the first newspaper to con­tract for United Press International wire photo service (in 1959).

—It exclusively photographed three Chinese Communist navy men who escaped the mainland aboard a Communist Chinese landing craft to Matsu. They were aboard an unarmed ROC Air Force HU-16 destined for Taiwan when it was shot down by Communist MiG fighters. The three and the aircraft crew were thus brutally executed (on Jan. 10, 1966).

To help meet the special information needs of overseas Chinese, the newspaper, in June 1950, launched its first international edition, in Hongkong. Four months later, it published an inter­national edition in New York. In Nov. 1956, international operations were ex­panded via an enriched edition published in Taipei for worldwide circulation.

The international edition of the Cen­tral Daily News becomes indispensable to countless overseas Chinese and to Chinese students studying abroad for its intensive news coverage of Chinese affairs and, also, a very important channel for foreign China specialists to keep up to date on happenings in the ROC. That the international edition has successfully achieved its goals as a bridge for readers abroad, is reflected in a circulation that has risen from a token initial 600 to 35,000 as of Nov. 1985.

On Nov. 16, 1985, the international edition's format and contents were totally revised in a continuing modernization competition with the international edi­tion of the ROC's largest newspaper, the United Daily News. After several trial editions, the Central Daily News, formally revised edition was launched Jan. 1, 1986, dedicated to four main subject areas: ROC domestic politics, mainland China issues, overseas Chinese life, and "nostalgic" special coverage, according to Hwang Tien-tsai, international edition editor.

The edition was recently revised again and expanded from four to eight pages. Color sections were added on the theatrical and other arts, and, in Sunday editions, for children and Chinese culture. In addition, economic informa­tion, public opinion, and readers' service features are now offered.

A Central Daily News publishing division, established in Sept. 1978, has since issued over 200 books.

A unique business aspect is an ad­vertising department policy which man­dates that ads be accepted only if the con­tents are socially positive. "We will only choose ads that are in the public interest, even at the cost of annual ad revenue declines," asserts Lin Tung-chen, ad department head. "A newspaper repre­senting the ruling political party is not an ordinary profit-making enterprise after all," he adds.

In spite of its political status and rela­tive financial independence, the News is no different than other newspapers where its basic reporting, features, and editorials are concerned. The intense media competition in the ROC requires that it actively contend in basic journalis­tic quality with other newspapers. Only it must, because of its political base, always consider its further responsibilities to society in all its operations.

The late President Chiang Kai-shek, then also the chief executive of the ruling party, once admonished News employees: "The commentary of the Central Daily News must reflect public opinion; its language must be sharp and powerful; and it should not shun its duty to criticize governmental programs in a constructive way."

The late President's instruction are still priority guidelines for the newspaper and are reflected in the serious approach and sense of social responsibility visible in News'columns every day.