ABSTRACT
Since November 20, the day the newspaper published the text of the circular telegram of the Beijing meeting of rightists, the Shanghai Minguo ribao, directed by Ye Chucang 1 and other Guomindang rightists, has publicly proclaimed the fact that it has become an organ of the reactionaries. It has proclaimed the fact that it has broken away from the revolutionary Guomindang, compromised with the imperialists and warlords, and become one of their propaganda organs. We are not in the least surprised by the reactionary attitude of the Shanghai Minguo ribao, because it was formerly a newspaper of Ye Chucang and other individuals. Only after last year’s First National Congress was it taken over by the party, yet from the very beginning it could not be an organ for Guomindang opinion. It often refused to publish, or made cuts in, what it regarded as “extreme” anti-imperialist and antiwarlord writings; it hid the evil of the imperialists and warlords and praised them in every possible way; it proved unable to propagate to the slightest extent the revolutionary policies of the Guomindang and of the national government. During the war in Jiangsu and Zhejiang last year, this newspaper completely abandoned its Guomindang identity and became a mouthpiece of Lu Yongxiang and the Anfu clique. When the Nanyang Tobacco Company made several thousand of its workers unemployed 2 and turned them into homeless 295wanderers, this paper gave enormous publicity to the arguments of the capitalists in justification of their oppression of the workers, while reports from the workers’ side were either simply rejected or only carried after cuts had been made. In the May Thirtieth Movement this year, the Shanghai Minguo ribao’s anti-imperialist propaganda fell far short of that in the official newspaper of the Research clique. 3 During the past few months, this paper has refused to publish many important news items about matters in Guangdong such as the anti-imperialist movement, the struggle against the warlords, and the elimination of counte?evolutionaries. In contrast, stories of Sun Chuanfang’s 4 military actions filled its pages. All these were presages of this newspaper’s turn toward reaction, with which every revolutionary party member has long been extremely dissatisfied. So there is really nothing new; the paper has simply taken the occasion of the Beijing meeting of rightists to declare ‘formally’ its reactionary stand. Since it did this on November 20, the paper has daily made many propaganda attacks on the left. This is naturally its duty, because without attacking the left it cannot qualify as the official newspaper of the right, nor can it seek merit in the eyes of the Municipal Council in Shanghai and of Duan Qirui in Beijing and get them to recognize its counterrevolutionary position, or attain its reactionary goals. We consider the reactionary attitude of the Shanghai Minguo ribao fully logical. It demonstrates the strength of the Guomindang Left and the development of the movement against imperialism and the warlords in China. It also demonstrates, finally, that a close combat between Chinese revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries has already been engaged, and that the success of China’s national revolution will come very soon. In China today, all the people and the newspapers in the center must change their stand soon. Either they must go to the left and join the revolutionary camp, or they must go to the right and join the counterrevolutionary camp; it is simply no longer possible to go on wearing that gray mask of neutrality. Having grasped this point, we can understand why the Shanghai Minguo ribao has become reactionary; why recently papers such as the Chenbao and Xingshi zhoubao have been attacking the Guomindang and the Communist Party much more fiercely than before, and why the leaders of the Guomindang right were obliged to meet in Beijing at the present time to counter the Central Executive Committee and the national government in Guangzhou led 296by the Left. As for what action should be taken against the Shanghai Minguo ribao, the Central Executive Committee of the Guomindang has already resolved to send someone to the newspaper for an investigation and appropriate action. At the same time, the Central Executive Committee has sent a circular telegram to the party headquarters at all levels and in all localities, denouncing the reactionary and absurd conduct of the paper. The text of the telegram is reproduced below:
Send to 8 Cuihua Lane, Beijing, and at the same time for transmittal to the party headquarters of Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Chaha’er, Suiyuan, Rehe, Harbin; to the party headquarters of Jiangsu Province, Yongji Lane, Wangzhi Road, Shanghai; Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou; Hunan Province, Changsha; Jiangxi Province, Nanchang; Hubei Province, Wuchang; Sichuan Province, Chongqing; Fujian Province, Xiamen; Guangxi Province, Nanning; Guangdong Province, Guangzhou; and please pass on to the party headquarters at lower levels; to all newspaper offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hankou; to overseas party headquarters in different places. Would every comrade please note: the Shanghai Minguo ribao has recently been taken over by reactionary elements; the views it publishes are fallacious and are fundamentally contrary to the principles of the party. Emissaries have been sent to investigate and deal with the matter. You are hereby informed of this. From the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Guomindang.
