On January 28, 1956, the State Council adopted the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme. People’s Daily printed it in full on January 31. From February 1, the first list of simplified characters came into use across the country.
In 1957, during a brief period of open criticism, Guangming Daily and Wenhui Bao printed many objections to simplification. On January 10, 1958, Premier Zhou Enlai answered them. He said that “rightists” had attacked the reform and wanted the State Council to withdraw its order. Simplification, he said, “should be firmly supported.”