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People's Daily breaks form with Li Na tribute

The official CCP newspaper is not known for its inventive news layouts. But it broke with form when tennis star Li Na made history.

The People’s Daily newspaper, the official “mouthpiece” of the Chinese Communist Party, is not known for its inventive news layouts. Playing its narrow political role with tight-lipped seriousness, it lays out the Party news of the day with careful attention to the political pecking order — which usually means, yes, that Hu’s on first.
Over the weekend, however, Chinese tennis player Li Na (李娜) became the first Chinese national (and the first Asian) to win a tennis Grand Slam final, and that news was apparently immense enough as a source of national pride to warrant a break with form at the People’s Daily. Here is the front page of the June 5 edition of the paper, with a prominent report on Li Na’s victory.

David Bandurski

CMP Director

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