AP honors journalist executed in 1951 by Chinese officials

[TomSea]

AP honors journalist executed in 1951 by Chinese officials
By JOHN DANISZEWSKI   yesterday


This photo provided by University of Missouri shows Yin-Chih Jao from the 1923 & 1924 Savitar Yearbook. The Associated Press has recognized the sacrifice of Yin-Chih Jao, a journalist in China by installing his name Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019 on its memorial Wall of Honor. Jao was a correspondent working for the AP in China at the time of the Communist Red Army's victory over Nationalist forces and its conquest of China. Jao continued to work for AP in Nanjing even after American correspondents were evicted from the country. His passion for journalism led to his execution in 1951. (University of Missouri via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Y.C. Jao was a respected Chinese correspondent working for The Associated Press in April 1949 when Mao Zedong’s Red Army stormed into Nanjing, defeating the Nationalist forces of leader Chiang Kai-shek and paving the way for the Communist takeover of China.

A family man in his late 40s, tall and erudite with liberal views, Jao was an intellectual deeply committed to news, and to modernizing journalism in China. He had studied at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism in the 1920s, before returning after 10 years to teach journalism and to start an English-language paper.

He was recommended to the AP as a local correspondent by the then U.S. ambassador to China, and worked under the supervision of Seymour Topping, the head of the AP bureau in Nanking, which was the capital city of the Nationalist Chinese government.

Continued at: https://apnews.com/74a21cf8d90267096cc05d775d016083