After the founding of New China, with the rapid development of various quarters, especially the great victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and the convening of the Geneva Conference in 1954, China's prestige and international status were greatly enhanced, and it was imperative to open up a new situation in diplomatic work and strengthen the study of international issues.
In October 1954, the number of foreign news agencies copied by Xinhua News Agency had increased from more than 30 in 1949 to 46, and as many as 560,000 words of telegrams were copied every day, and the number of foreign translations greatly increased. At that time, the "Reference News" was 16 open, and due to the large amount of manuscripts, it was divided into two parts: the main page and the sub-page. The front page is the main page, which publishes important news; the back is the second page, which publishes analytical articles and the economic, political, cultural and other aspects of various countries. The number of pages published per day by Reference News has increased to 50 pages, and it will increase in the event of major events.
Although the "Reference News" is getting more and more word counts and the book is getting thicker, there are still many translations that cannot be accommodated. The "Reference News" cannot continue to "expand", and it is necessary to set up a separate publication to meet the needs of various central departments and some research institutions. While Wu Lengxi, then president of Xinhua News Agency, was pondering how to solve this problem, he received instructions from Premier Zhou to improve the coverage of the Reference News and to propose the creation of reference materials.
According to the instructions of Premier Zhou, Wu Lengxi submitted the "Plan on Improving Reference Information" to the Central Committee on February 21, 1955. The plan proposes to divide "Reference News" into two kinds of publications for publication, the first of which is still called "Reference News", which is only published in a small amount of space, and undertakes the task of quickly and concisely reporting important international news and reflecting important situations for the reference of leading comrades, and the scope of distribution can be appropriately expanded; the second is named "Reference Materials", which is published in a relatively large length and undertakes the task of comprehensively and thoroughly introducing international developments and providing information for the reference and use of responsible comrades of the central authorities and relevant departments and research departments.
The above-mentioned plan was affirmed by Premier Zhou's instructions. On March 1, 1955, the revised "Reference News" cancelled the sub-pages and selected the condensed edition, commonly known as "small reference". On the same day, another publication, References, was published, commonly known as the "Great Reference".
Infographic: On March 1, 1955, the reference news was divided into two.
Infographic: The first issue of the section after the division into two, with notes from the editors.
Source: Reference News Network