Publication of three major government-run newspapers was delayed by eight hours yesterday to ensure that coverage of two highlights of President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States could be included.
The People's Daily, the China Economic Daily and the PLA Daily were delayed to include reports of Hu's joint press conference with US President Barack Obama, as well as a joint Sino-US statement, a People's Daily employee confirmed yesterday.
The statement was issued in the early hours of yesterday morning Beijing time.
Although occasionally the printing presses of the major official mouthpieces are held to wait for reports of important events, such as overseas visits by Hu, or even the annual plenum of National People's Congress, such a long delay was unheard of in recent years, according to media experts and journalists.
All reports about important overseas visits by state leaders are carefully vetted by the party's propaganda authorities.
Song Shinan, a media analyst based in Sichuan, said he believed the papers may have been ordered to wait for the reports from the US because Hu's trip might well be his last to the US as president.