Party Media Reports Shrinking Coverage of Party Leader's Tree Planting Event: Is Xi Planning to Step Back?

File photo: Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang (right) at the closing meeting of the National People's Congress in the Great Hall of the People. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

[People News] According to a report from the People's Daily, every year around the Qingming Festival, senior officials of the Communist Party of China (CPC) engage in a symbolic tree planting event in the suburbs. On April 3, both official and military media covered the participation of Zhang Youxia, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, along with Yin Li, Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, and Central Military Commission members Liu Zhenli and Zhang Shengmin in a tree planting activity in Tongzhou District on April 2. This coverage clearly indicated that He Weidong, another Vice Chairman of the Military Commission, rumored to be under investigation, has indeed encountered problems, as he had also participated in the event with Zhang Youxia and Yin Li last year. Following the two sessions of the CPC, He Weidong's continued absence from several important events suggests that he is unable to appear.

After Zhang Youxia's public appearance and the confirmation of He Weidong's issues, on April 4, official and military media reported again on Xi Jinping's tree planting event by the Yongding River in Fengtai District on April 3, attended by all members of the Politburo Standing Committee and some Politburo members. While the text and photos on the official website appear similar to previous years, this year's reports in the People's Daily and the Military Daily reveal a significant anomaly compared to similar news from the past three years: the overall news coverage has noticeably shrunk.

It is widely recognized that in official CPC reports, different levels of leaders are subject to specific regulations regarding layout, word count, content, and photos, which the media must strictly follow. If there is an issue in reporting on a particular aspect of a leader, and it is not due to a media error, it is highly likely that the leader is facing some difficulties.

In general, the layout of the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is quite wide, divided vertically into several columns. Each column has a uniform width, and the various sections of a newspaper must maintain a consistent and fixed number of columns. This type of uniform, fixed, and equally wide column is known as a basic column. A page is divided into several basic columns, and a news article typically uses more than two columns for its layout, with the character count in each column generally being equal, with only minor discrepancies in rare cases.

Each layout in the newspaper can be divided into several areas. For instance, on the front page, a layout can be horizontally split into two equal parts, creating an upper half and a lower half; it can also be vertically divided into a left half and a right half. By overlapping these two types of divisions, a layout can be segmented into four areas: upper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right. In terms of prominence, the upper half is prioritized over the lower half, and the left half is prioritized over the right half. This means that the most important headline news is placed in the upper left area of the front page.

Typically, the space occupied by the headline content on the front page matches the width of the newspaper header, while the height varies based on the amount of content. Occasionally, if the headline is too lengthy and there are several other important articles of similar significance, the headline content may be shifted to another page.

However, the width of the headline can also be adjusted; it can be expanded by using long columns and broken columns. 'Long columns,' also referred to as 'combined columns,' involve merging basic columns in multiples; 'broken columns' entail breaking the basic columns and redistributing them evenly. This approach can be applied to significant news about the party leader or important news related to the Two Sessions, and it also necessitates large font titles and images to emphasize the news.

 

After discussing the layout of the People’s Daily front page headline, let’s take a look at the front pages of the People’s Daily and PLA Daily from April 4, 2024; April 5, 2023; March 31, 2022; and April 3, 2021. When reporting on the same news of Xi Jinping planting trees, not only did the stories occupy the headline position, they also broke into the upper and left sections of the page, appearing as long columns that spanned across standard boundaries. The article and accompanying photo took up nearly two-thirds of the entire page, very eye-catching. Readers would immediately notice this news at first glance.

But on April 4, 2024, a major change in the layout of the tree-planting story was that it no longer appeared as a long column and was confined only to the left half of the page. The photo was also smaller than in previous years, and Xi’s image was correspondingly reduced. The entire news item only took up just over one-third of the front page and completely lacked the “core aura” that previous versions carried. Compared to other news stories, it did not stand out at all.

Notably, this year’s layout is very similar to that of April 4, 2020, when the pandemic was severe. Meanwhile, by 2019, the layout of similar stories had already begun to resemble the 2021–2024 pattern, though the text was shorter at the time.

So, the fact that the layout of Xi’s tree-planting news, which had remained unchanged from 2021 to 2024, suddenly changed this year, and even reverted to the 2020 style, is likely yet another indication that Xi’s status is declining. This comes after loyalist generals like Miao Hua and He Weidong were investigated, and after the personnel reshuffle between Central Organization Department head Shi Taifeng and United Front Work Department head Li Ganjie. All of this could be further evidence that Xi may really be preparing to “step down.”

(First published by People News)