ESWN translates Ming Pao Monthly’s report saying that the reformist magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu received the top media award from Southern Weekend, but a telephone call from the Central Publicity Department cut short the awards ceremony.
According to information, Southern Weekend contacted the Yanhuang Chunqiu editor-in-chief Wu Si first to request the presence of Du Daozheng. Wu Si initially said that Du was “too busy and cannot make it” and that Wu Si himself would be the representative. Southern Weekend then made multiple pleas, arguing that the honor was not personal but for Yanhuang Chunqiu as a whole so that Du Daozheng must attend. Finally, 85-year-old Du Daozheng put aside his other engagements to attend.
At 1:30pm on January 19, the hall for the Southern Weekend award ceremony was crowded with people. Du Daozheng and Wu Si arrived on time and entered the VIP room where they were greeted warmly by the Southern Weekend leaders. They spoke about the situation in Zhongnanhai, and Du said that democratic governance was more open and pragmatic than ever before just as everyone expected. During the conversation, Du Daozheng praised the Politburo member Wang Yang’s recent Guangzhou speech about the liberation of thinking and grand reform. But he suggested that the adjective “grand” should be replaced by “new” because we are looking at a “new round of liberated thinking.”
