To discuss the press people in the United States who have a high status in the 20th century, I'm afraid no one has surpassed Lippman . In the era when he lived, he used a pen in his hand to exert the influence of words to the extreme. He visited various countries and was often received by heads of state, and the glory of the United States ambassadors did not allow him to be seen.
However, Lippmann is not the only American journalist with such ability. Agnes Smedley, who was four years younger than him, could do it, but she could do it in Yan'an, the Chinese red capital in the 1930s. Smedley later recalled:
"Sometimes, I wrote a note to Mao Zedong about 'please come and talk', and he came soon, carrying a bag of peanuts in his hand...." "Mao Zedong often came to the cave where I lived with my translator, so the three of us had a meal together, and talked for a few hours. Because he had never been abroad, he asked piles of questions."
Smedley
Smedley
Agnes Smedley was born in 1892 and was the same generation of American journalists as Lippmann. In terms of its status in the United States, Smedley is of course hard to match, but in terms of its popularity in China, Smedley is probably not too nervous, but more people only know Smedley. Because she is one of the famous "Three S" (i.e., famous American journalists Snow , Smedley, Anna Louis Strong) and one of the most famous "old friends of the Chinese people". She visited Yan'an in depth and also went to North China and northern Jiangsu to interview the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army on the front line. She actively used her international relations to seek assistance for Yan'an. Later, Canadian doctor Bethune and famous Indian surgeon Ke Dihua came to China. The important reason was that it was her enthusiastic recommendation. Smedley was the first person to reveal the news of the incident to the New York Times after the "South Anhui Incident".
Her most famous work is Zhu De's biography "The Great Road". This was written abroad after she left China in the 1940s. She was in poor health and died of illness in the UK in 1950. She did not have time to visit the New China under the leadership of her old friend when she was in Yan'an.
Lipuman
I tell this story here because I want to say that in the war to seize national power, the CCP was a military victory and a narrative victory. In the most difficult period, the successful spread of the "Yan'an story" throughout the world has broken the blockade and won the most international sympathy. Behind all this is the familiarity of the CCP leaders in the Yan'an era with international communication rules. At that time, there were Soviet journalists in Yan'an, and there were journalists from major Soviet news organizations. However, when the CCP leader Mao Zedong proposed to choose a "trusted foreigner" to visit the base, the first one was selected was Snow, an American journalist trained by the famous Missouri Journalism Academy. Later, the mainstream media reporters from the British and American have been visiting Yan'an, which has a lot to do with "Red Stars Shine China". More importantly, almost every visiting reporter was personally received by Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and others. Snow recalled that he and Mao Zedong "conversed for several hours in a row, sometimes almost the next day's dawn." Therefore, it was by no means accident that Mao Zedong would come with peanuts with a note. In today's terms, the leaders of the Communist Party of China in the Yan'an era have set the best example to improve the ability of leading cadres to deal with the media.
Let’s talk about Lippman again. On the eve of Nixon's visit to China in 1972, in January, a representative of the Chinese delegation to the United Nations visited Lipman and brought him an invitation to Lipman to visit China by then Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. In March of that year, China sent an invitation again, but at this time, Lipuman was already 83 years old. He felt that his body could not bear a distant trans-ocean trip. He politely declined both invitations. Of course, it was a pity for China and Lipuman himself. But twice in a year, sincere invitations were made, which shows that even in that special era, the top leadership of the Communist Party of China was well aware of the value of public opinion leaders in international communication.
Source: Magazines from all walks of life, Issue 9, 2022,
Author: Wang Tianding
