Writing in the People's Daily (March 17),  Qu Qingshan, Dean of the Central Party History and Literature Research Institute, disclosed that the CCP CC Propaganda Department, in accordance with the instructions of the Party Central Committee,  had "officially" published the 180,000-character "Questions and Answers on the Study of Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era" (hereinafter referred to as "Questions and Answers") consisting of 40 speeches by Xi himself and the 98,000-character "A Brief History of the Communist Party of China" containing “Excerpts from Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao on the History of the Chinese Communist Party”. He described these as "the designated study material for the whole party to carry out the study and education of party history". An accompanying article summarised a speech of the Deputy Minister of the Central Propaganda Department at the forum for the release of the books.