China has a new magazine on the stands. Edited by Hu Shuli (56), China’s most daring journalist, Century Weekly is hard-hitting and tests the limits of media censorship. She used to bring out the most influential glossy business magazine, Caijing. Her departure from Caijing in November last is attributed to the iron hand of the censors.
Setting out her goals at Century Weekly, Hu said the magazine will support professional journalism, push forward reforms in China, and protect the public’s right to know while chronicling, objectively and thoughtfully, our nation in transition. ‘We firmly believe this is a valuable and achievable objective at this critical stage of national history’.
Given the controversies she courted and scandals she reported, it is a surprise how Hu Shuli, has survived behind the bamboo curtain. One of her scoops was a 2005 scandal about Zhang Enzhao, then chairman of China’s second biggest bank. He was forced to resign. Another scam uncovered sale of organs of executed prisoners to rich Japanese for transplant.
Century Weekly in its inaugural issue featured electric cars, corruption in football and the controversial jailing of Li Zhuang, a Beijing lawyer representing gang bosses in Chongqing, who claims he was convicted after being denied due process.
The Century Weekly is not a new publication but ‘relaunch’ of an obscure magazine produced by China Institute for Reform and Development, a think-tank, says Clifford Coonan in his despatch in the Independent from Beijing.
Communist Party of China has relaxed rules on reporting on some issues the magazine deals with, like disaster coverage and corruption according to Coonan. However, it is absolute no, no to criticism of the party itself. Hu Shuli began her journalistic career at the Workers’ Daily.
Century Weekly is a publication of the Caixin media group.
