CHINA-INTERNAL: PROPAGANDA
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On June 19, 2016, the People's Daily published on page 5 a lengthy article entitled “Grasping the Important Position of News and Public Opinion Work” by Tian Jin, Deputy Director of China’s State Administration of Press and Publication, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT), as part of a series on the “study and implementation” of Xi Jinping’s February 19 speech on the media. The article gives a noticeably harder edge to Xi jinping’s already hard language on the media .The main points in Tian Jin's article are: - News and public opinion work is an important task for the Party. Comrade Mao Zedong said that revolution relies on the barrel of the gun and the shaft of the pen,and that the Chinese Communist Party must hold pamphlets in its left hand and bullets in its right before it can defeat the enemy. Prioritising news and public opinion work is a fine tradition of our Party, and an important magic weapon that has brought constant victories in revolution, [national] construction and reform. Under the conditions of a new era, the cause of the Party faces an even more arduous and onerous task.
- Grasping the overall situation in the ideological struggle (把握意识形态领域斗争全局). “Along with the acceleration of social transformation in our country, various tensions have grown more obvious, and ideas in society are diverse, varied and changeable — so that we see more frequent interchange, interaction and confrontation between various trends of thought. Internationally, the contest remains intense among different value systems and institutional models (制度模式), and hostile forces overseas have not relented in the plots of Westernisation and division directed against us, with no fundamental change to the status quo of a strong West and a weak China in terms of international public opinion. News and public opinion are on the frontiers of the ideological struggle, and various hostile forces are vying with us for public opinion positions, vying for people’s hearts (争夺人心), vying for the masses (争夺群众). Newspapers and periodicals, and radio and television networks, are the mainstream media trusted by the Party and the people, and they must maintain an active posture (必须主动作为), having the courage to “drive the demons out of our land” (玉宇澄清万里埃), playing the positive and upright main theme (主旋律) [of the Party], eliminating the negative impact of static and noise (杂音噪音), effectively channeling public opinion in society, and firmly grasping the initiative and leading position in the struggle in the ideological sphere.
Talking of “adhering to the correct political orientation”, Tian Jin stresses the principle of the “Party nature” of the media and asserts:
We must throughout put propaganda discipline up in front, effectively enhancing firm and willing compliance with propaganda discipline . . . not offering any channel for the transmission of erroneous ideas and static and noise.
We must adhere to territorial responsibility, responsibility for [one’s] territory, ultimate responsibility for [one’s] territory (守土尽责), carrying out the strengthening of discipline throughout, strengthening channeling and management, strengthening comprehensive and strict checks — quickly discovering, firmly restraining and strictly handling certain programs that hype hot social topics, ridicule national policies (调侃国家政策), spread erroneous views (散布错误观点), advocate extreme ideas (鼓吹极端理念) and deliberately intensify contradictions, and conducting awareness education on classic problems through the entire system.
Under the heading: “Correct guidance that is all-encompassing, without exceptions", Tian Jin states:
We must connect the adherence to correct guidance to every aspect of our work, implementing it in every element, in every position, in every procedure, through every responsible person, absolutely without leaving any hidden dangers or dead ends (绝不留隐患和死角).
In recent years, we have already implemented a series of policy measures in terms of the maintenance of guidance at news interview programs, entertainment programs, talent shows, legal programs, reality shows, etcetera.
Lately one focus has been promoting unification of measures and unification of standards for guidance and content management between traditional media and new media. For this, we have built a monitoring system (监看监管制度) for audiovisual programming, promoted the building of a network production and broadcast management system for online dramas (网络剧) and micro-films (微电影), introduced measures to strengthen management of overseas television dramas online, all of which have had a positive impact in regulating order in online audiovisual broadcasting, and in promoting the healthy development of the online broadcasting industry (网络视听业). The next step is the research, development and introduction of management measures for documentaries, animation and variety programmes, truly achieving [a situation in which] wherever new media technologies and businesses develop, management can develop in step, truly achieving not just control but also solid management (管得住而且管得好).
(Comment: (i) Tian Jin is a native of Shanxi who was educated at Hunan University. He has spent the past 15 years within the media control bureaucracy, first joining the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) in 2001. Before that, he spent almost two years in Hong Kong as a senior administrative affairs official at Xinhua News Agency.
(ii) Talk of guns and pens, of enemies and magic weapons, and the phrase “barrel of the gun and shaft of the pen” has appeared just 17 times (the majority during the Cultural Revolution) in the entire history of the People's Daily since July 2, 1946. It has appeared in three articles in the Xi Jinping era, after a dormancy of almost 30 years. The article makes it clear that the Party’s goal is to dominate the message, both at home and abroad — and this is being viewed as a life-and-death struggle for ideological dominance.
(iii) Xi Jinping's speeches regarding role of the Mainland media and Tian Jin's article appear to be curtain raisers for the upcoming Sixth Plenum.)
CHINA-INTERNAL: POPULAR PROTESTS AND HONGKONG MEDIA ACCUSED OF INSTIGATION
Perhaps for the first time a Chinese official in southern China at a news conference on June 20, 2016 accused Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper and the Initium Media digital media group of inciting, planning and directing land seizure protests at Wukan village, Guangzhou. Shi Shuoyan, the head of the Shanwei government press office, was quoted by mainland media as telling a news conference : “We welcome overseas media to interview and report, according to the law and regulations, objectively and fairly.
However, a few overseas media, such as the Apple Daily and Initium Media, have been inciting, planning and directing in Wukan. We will take measures according to the law.”
(Comment: Wukan made international headlines in 2012 when a series of protests took place against land seizures. There have been fresh demonstrations in recent days after village leader Lin Zuluan was arrested over the weekend.)
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