The ''Economic Daily'' () is a Chinese state-owned newspaper focusing on economic reports. Founded in Beijing on January 1, 1983, the newspaper is a deputy ministerial-level institution under the

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative autho ...

. The newspaper is managed by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

History

In 1984,

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. Aft ...

wrote an inscription for the ''Economic Daily''. In October 2020, the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

designated the ''Economic Daily'' as a

foreign mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually de ...

of China.

Hoax

On January 28, 1993, ''Economic Daily'' published an article entitled ''Can Water Really Become Gasoline? —— A Record of Private Entrepreneur Wang Hongcheng and His Invention'' (水真能变成油吗?——记民营企业家王洪成与他的发明). The article, written by ''Economic Daily'' reporters

Wu Hongbo Wu Hongbo (; born May 1952 in Shandong) is a Chinese diplomat. Until July 2017 he was the Under-Secretary-General in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. He replaced Sha Zukang as the head of DESA. Wu held various hi ...

(吴红博) and Liu Donghua (刘东华), praised the "

invention An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an id ...

" of

Wang Hongcheng The Hongcheng Magic Liquid incident was a scam in China where Wang Hongcheng (), a bus driver from Harbin with no scientific education, claimed in 1983 that he could turn regular water into a fuel as flammable as petrol by simply dissolving a few ...

(王洪成) for transforming

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

into

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic ...

as "China's fifth greatest invention" (中国第五大发明) after the traditional

Four Great Inventions The Four Great Inventions () are inventions from ancient China that are celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance and as symbols of ancient China's advanced science and technology. They are the compass, gunpowder, papermakin ...

. However, the water-to-gasoline technology (水变油技术) was later deemed a

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

and

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...

, and in 1998, its initiator, Wang Hongcheng, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://paper.ce.cn/ Publications established in 1983 Daily newspapers published in China Chinese-language newspapers (Simplified Chinese) State media Chinese Communist Party newspapers