The ''Central Daily News'' was the official

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

and is one of the world's oldest

Chinese-language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

newspapers, having been in circulation since 1928. The Kuomintang made the decision to temporarily cease publication of the newspaper effective June 1, 2006, because it could no longer subsidize the newspaper's snowballing debts, which had amounted to around

NT$ The New Taiwan dollar (code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dollars ...

800 million (US$24.5 million), almost twice the overall assets of the party. It is now a dedicated online publication available to Taiwanese and Chinese readers in both

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

, written in both

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

and

simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example * Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...

. Relations between both sides of the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...

are one of the most important topics, as well as business.

History

''Central Daily News'' was launched in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

on 1 February 1928, as a mouthpiece of the Kuomintang and began circulation in the then Chinese capital

Nanking Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

. The paper had previously temporarily ceased publication on 13 December 1937, when the capital was occupied by the

Japanese military The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, th ...

in the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. The paper was relocated to the temporary Chinese capital

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

and resumed publication on September 1, 1938, before returning to Nanjing after the war. In 1949, the paper was relocated to yet another temporary Chinese capital,

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

on the island of

, when the Kuomintang fled mainland China during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. In 1950, the Kuomintang, fearing sociopolitical instability and communist insurgency, began a four-decade-long authoritarian rule, beginning with the suspension of the constitution, which included a ban on the free press. During this time, the ''Central Daily News'' became the most widely read newspaper in Taiwan. However, when the ban on free press was lifted in 1987, the newspaper began facing fierce competition and, as a result of its

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

image and connection with the past Kuomintang authoritarianism, it began losing popularity. By April 2006, the paper accumulated debts exceeding NT$800 million and was sustaining losses of NT$8.44 million each month in the same year. As part of new austerity measures implemented by Kuomintang Chairman

Ma Ying-jeou Ma Ying-jeou ( zh, 馬英九, born 13 July 1950) is a Hong Kong-born Taiwanese politician who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016. Previously, he served as justice minister from 1993 to 1996 and mayor of Taipei from ...

, the Central Standing Committee resolved to cease publication of the paper by the end of May 2006. The paper retained a small staff of 70 to update its website. After being shut down in June, the newspaper was reborn on September 13, 2006, as an electronic newspaper. The website was taken down during a personnel change in May 2018, but remains down to this day.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.cdnews.com.tw/ 1928 establishments in China Defunct newspapers published in Taiwan Chinese-language newspapers (Traditional Chinese) Publications established in 1928 Kuomintang Online newspapers with defunct print editions Publications disestablished in 2006

History

See also

References

External links