On December 31, the Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily, issued a posting on its official blog announcing its expansion from 8 pages to 12 pages on weekdays and 4 pages to 8 pages on weekends. In addition, it added the statement, “In the new year, we will work hard to tell the truth and write the truth … making [our paper] more readable and viewable to truly serve our readers.”

Because of its insistence that it would "work hard to tell the truth," the posting has drawn a large number of sarcastic comments from Chinese netizens.

“I am surprised at this announcement. If it is true, it would be the first step that the People’s Daily is taking the lead to make the media move towards openness and its contribution should deserve recognition. If, however, this first sentence from the People’s Daily in the New Year is a true lie, what to do? How could the People’s Daily face its readers?”

“Does this mean that the Party’s official media has always been lying?”

“How come the Party’s newspaper must "work hard" to tell truth?”

“It is very hard for a newspaper belonging to the Party to speak the truth. Of course, it must work hard to do so.”

“When we were young, parents and teachers taught us not to lie. But after we grew up, [we] found out that one may lose his life just for telling the truth. …”



“Even the Central Government newspaper must work hard to tell the truth. Whether after the hard work, the truth is really told or not may never be known. …”

“Anything that requires ‘hard work’ is usually difficult. To call a deer a horse is normal. But to call a deer a deer requires hard work.”

Source: Official Blog of People’s Daily, December 31, 2012 (comments made as of January 3, 2013, at the blog)

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