The Southeast Daily was a newspaper in Zhejiang during the Republic of China period. It was reorganized from the official newspaper of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee of the Kuomintang, the Hangzhou Republic of China Daily. It was run between the party and party members and was affiliated to the Southeast News Enterprise Co., Ltd. On March 12, 1927, the Hangzhou Republic of China Daily was founded, and then it was suspended and reorganized due to the Kuomintang's purge. From 1928, served as editor-in-chief, and later became president. He reformed the newspaper and expanded its influence, with "party stance and liberal color" as the editorial policy. In June 1934, the Hangzhou Republic of China Daily was renamed the Southeast Daily, and a joint-stock company was established to implement public-private partnership.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Southeast Daily moved south and established the edition, which was then divided into the Lishui edition and the Jiangshan edition. The Lishui edition was changed to the Yunhe County edition, and the Jiangshan edition was changed to the edition. After the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Yunhe edition was changed to the Hangzhou edition, and the Nanping edition was changed to the Shanghai edition. In May 1949, the Southeast Daily ceased publication. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) captured Hangzhou in 1949, the Southeast Daily was taken over by the Zhejiang Daily.
History
Early history In February 1927, the National Revolutionary Army occupied Hangzhou. On March 12, 1927, the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee founded the Hangzhou Republic Daily at the Youji Guild Hall on the west side of Yangxuenong, Xingwu Road (now Kaiyuan Road) in Hangzhou County. As the newspaper sponsored by the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee of the Kuomintang after the First United Front, it was directly under the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee and was led by the Party Newspaper Management Committee. Xuan Zhonghua, a member of the Chinese Communist Party, concurrently served as the director of the Social Affairs Committee of the Hangzhou Republic Daily, and Zhang Liusheng served as the general manager. Yang Xianjiang, Dai Bangding and Tang Gongxian successively served as chief editors. At that time, it mainly promoted Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People and the policies of the First United Front, and support for farmers and workers, while supporting the rights of workers and farmers and developing and strengthening the left-wing team of the Kuomintang. Therefore, although the newspaper was established in the name of the Kuomintang party newspaper, most of the main responsible persons actually leaned towards the CCP and competed with the Hangzhou National News sponsored by the Kuomintang military system in Hangzhou on the same day.
In April 1927, the Kuomintang carried out a purge in Hangzhou, which led to the suspension and forced reorganization of the Hangzhou Republic Daily. On April 11, many members of the CCP, including Xuan Zhonghua, Tang Gongxian, and Chen Shiding, were arrested and killed. Afterwards, the Hangzhou Republic Daily resumed publication on April 14 under the control of the right-wing Kuomintang. Within a year after the Hangzhou Republic Daily was reorganized by the , the newspaper experienced a change of 7 presidents. Before the 1930s, the Hangzhou Republic Daily had a relatively limited influence, with a daily circulation of about 2,000 to 3,000 or 3,000 to 4,000 copies. In April 1928, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of the Kuomintang was reorganized, and served as the Minister of Propaganda and concurrently served as the president of the Hangzhou Republic Daily. He invited his Fudan University classmate to serve as the editor-in-chief.
In May 1929, the Zhejiang Provincial Government decided to temporarily cancel the "25% rent reduction" policy, which triggered strong opposition from the Hangzhou Republic Daily. The policy was originally formulated by the Kuomintang according to Sun Yat-sen's legacy and aimed to improve the living conditions of farmers. The Hangzhou Republic Daily stood on the position of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee of the Kuomintang and published articles in succession to support the "25% rent reduction", which led to opposition to Zhang Jingjiang's provincial government. In particular, on April 29, Hu Jianzhong's editorial on the robbery of the Bank of China in Jiaxing attributed the cause of the case to the inequality between the rich and the poor, indirectly criticizing the provincial government's policy, which aroused strong dissatisfaction from the provincial government. On April 30, the provincial government ordered the Hangzhou Republic Daily to stop publishing from May 1 on the grounds that the article was "far-fetched, criticized the government, deliberately instigated a trend, and was harmful to local public security." At that time, Hu Jianzhong was escorted to the Kuomintang Central Party Committee in Nanjing for processing. At the Kuomintang Central Party Committee, and Chen Guofu expressed their comfort to Hu Jianzhong and sent to Hangzhou for mediation. Subsequently, the Hangzhou Republic Daily also resumed publication on the 28th of the same month.
Growth
From 1930, served as the president and concurrently served as the editor-in-chief; from the winter of 1931 to the second half of 1933, the position of editor-in-chief was successively taken over by Xu Shiheng and Liu Xiangnv. When became the president, he began to actively reform the newspaper, including recruiting more field reporters, improving printing equipment and conditions, and at the same time changing the advertising business from outsourcing to self-operation by the newspaper to increase revenue. On the basis of these reforms, the content of the newspaper was enriched, such as adding the "Exclusive Interview with Our Newspaper" section, and attracting exclusive news reports with higher remuneration. The layout of the page and the content of the supplement were also adjusted accordingly.
The Kuomintang took the lead in Hangzhou Republic Daily, and with the party and government newspapers in various regions as the backbone, it basically formed a network of Kuomintang newspapers throughout the province. At the beginning of 1933, the daily sales of Hangzhou Republic Daily were close to 10,000 copies, and the original lithographic printing press could no longer meet the demand. Therefore, the newspaper decided to invest in a new rotary press and paper press, and began to use it in September of the same year. This was not only the first time that a rotary press was used for printing in Hangzhou and even in the entire Zhejiang Province, but also realized color printing. With the improvement of newspaper content and format, as well as the improvement of printing speed and quality, coupled with the westward extension of the , Hangzhou Republic Daily provided new development opportunities. With its geographical advantage, the newspaper was able to compete with major newspapers in Shanghai in terms of distribution, and its distribution in western Zhejiang and Jiangxi and Fujian regions often reached readers one day earlier than newspapers in Shanghai.
In order to break through the original geographical limitations of the Hangzhou Republic Daily and expand to the southeastern region of China, on June 16, 1934, the Hangzhou Republic Daily was renamed the Southeast Daily. At the same time, the Southeast Daily Co., Ltd. was established. During this period, the Southeast Daily Co., Ltd. performed well in operations, allowing the newspaper's highest daily circulation to reach 35,000 copies. It is widely circulated in Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu, northern Fujian, southern Anhui, eastern Jiangxi and other regions. Its influence and circulation are far ahead of its peers in the Hangzhou area, and it even caught up with the veteran Ta Kung Pao (1902–1949). Hu Jianzhong, the then president of the Southeast Daily, was as famous as Hu Zhengzhi, the president of the Ta Kung Pao, and was hailed as "the two hus of the north and the south, rivals of the time."
Wartime migration After the July 7 Incident, the Southeast Daily sent war correspondents to get the latest news while preparing to evacuate Hangzhou and move its personnel and equipment south. On November 19, it changed its publishing location to , and the newspaper office was located in the Jiang Clan Ancestral Hall of Taxia Temple in Jinhua City; Hangzhou only published special editions until December 22. On December 24, the Japanese army occupied Hangzhou, and the Southeast Daily Building was used as the Japanese military police headquarters. At the end of 1937, Huang Shaohong came to Zhejiang to take charge of the government and prepare for war. His "Zhejiang Province Wartime Political Program" was rejected by the Southeast Daily. For this reason, the opened the Zhejiang Tide on its own on February 24, 1938.
On July 7, 1939, the newspaper office moved to Wangfudun outside Jinhua. In 1941, the Japanese army sneaked across the Qiantang River and Jinhua was in a state of emergency. The Southeast Daily moved in two ways: one moved to Lishui, published the Lishui edition from May 1 to August 31, and then withdrew to Jinhua; the other retreated to Jiangshan, published an extra edition, and returned to Jinhua on June 1. After withdrawing to Jinhua, offices were set up in Lishui and Jiangshan, and printing equipment was reserved in case of unexpected events. The Southeast Daily Office continued to operate, and during its time in Jinhua, the daily circulation of the newspaper reached 20,000 copies.
In May 1942, the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign broke out. The magazine was suspended on May 20 and moved in two directions:
The first group, led by Liu Xiangnu, went to Lishui. In May 1942, after briefly resuming the Lishui edition, the Japanese army occupied Lishui from May 23 to August 28. On November 23, the Lishui edition was resumed again in Shangshuinan, Lishui. On March 31, 1943, the Japanese army bombed Lishui, and the Lishui branch was bombed, so it was suspended for ten days. On August 26, 1944, the Japanese army occupied Lishui again, and the Lishui edition was suspended from August 21 to October 10. It was resumed in Yunhe on December 8 and renamed the Yunhe edition. The second group, led by Hu Jianzhong, went to Jiangshan. On May 26, 1942, the Jiangshan edition issued an extra edition. On June 4, due to the invasion of the Japanese army, the newspaper began to move again and moved to , Fujian. On August 21, 1942, the Nanping edition was launched. In the autumn of 1943, Hu Jianzhong went to Chongqing to serve as the chief editor of the Central Daily News and concurrently served as the editor-in-chief of the Southeast Daily. Zhu Juying acted as the agent to handle the affairs of the newspaper. The circulation remained at about 10,000 copies.
During the eight-year Anti-Japanese War, more than 60 employees and their families were unfortunately bombed by enemy planes or died of illness, accounting for almost 10% of the total number of employees in the newspaper. Despite facing great difficulties, the Southeast Daily still actively promoted the anti-Japanese spirit. During the war, the daily circulation of the Southeast Daily remained at 18,000 copies, becoming an important "ink fortress and pen fortress" in the southeast region.
Post-war development