Zhuang Rongwen, the new Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) wrote an article in the latest issue of Qiushi on the need to deepen controls over the internet, following Xi jinping's directions at the Aug. 21–22 National Conference on Publicity and Ideological Work. Zhuang Rongwen vowed to try and promote “positive energy” — party speak for uplifting propaganda — and suppressing “wrong ideological trends” that range from distorting the party, the state or the military’s account of history, negating the party’s leadership or the socialist system, attacking the party’s guidelines and policies to undermining the ideology or image of party leaders, as well as rumours and terrorism-related video or audio. He pledged to hold internet tech companies strictly responsible for content management and to speed up the establishment of an overarching nationwide platform for all key internet companies, as well as platforms for the emergency management of public opinion on the internet. Zhuang Rongwen called on all internet users to join party members and propagandists to fight a “people’s war” to rehabilitate the “cyber ecology”. He declared that “The internet has become the main battlefield and forefront of propaganda and public opinion work. To take the helm of ideology work, we not only need the driving force of party members and mainstream media editors and reporters, but also need to fully make use of the broad masses of internet users.”
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