On the evening of March 30, officials responsible for the distribution of the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, People’s Daily, issued an urgent notice to stop delivering and destroy the newspaper immediately, according to Hong Kong-based Ming Pao. Although the notice was harshly worded, no explanation was given for the action. Screenshots of the notice were circulated on social media.
Sources familiar with the situation have pointed out that the incident was a result of the omission of the three characters of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s name in an opinion article published in the newspaper. Ming Pao reported that on March 30, page 5 of People’s Daily contained a commentary article titled “Unity and struggle is the only way for the Chinese people to create greatness in history”. In the article, Xi Jinping’s name was erroneously missed from the sixth line of the seventh paragraph before the word “comrade.” The sentence, which should have started as “the Party Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping as the core…”, was instead misprinted as “the Party Central Committee with comrade as the core….”
According to the same source, the notice to stop delivering and destroy the newspaper was issued after an internal investigation. As the incident was made public and could cause adverse effects, it is expected that the editor and other responsible persons will be punished.
Source: Liberty Times (Taiwan), April 4, 2023
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/4260403