According to ChinaFile (January 31) and state media articles examined by the Wall Street Journal (February
1), the 'New Era Civilization Practice Centers', first built in 50 counties as part of a small pilot program
launched in 2018, have now expanded roughly 10-fold to 100,000 centres in some 500 urban and rural
counties across China. The CCP CC Propaganda Department's implementation plan issued in 2019 hailed
the centers as helping to “truly open up the ‘last mile’ in terms of ‘propagandizing to the masses, educating
the masses, leading the masses, serving the masses.’ ” Local governments and institutions have been
estimated to spend as much as 700 million yuan (US$ 110 million) on these centres between August 2018
and September 2021.
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