Propaganda Issues Come to Fore as Summer Meetings Set the Political Agenda
BEIJING --- As may have been expected following the traditional summer meetings of senior leaders in the seaside resort of Beidaihe, the propaganda arms of the Chinese government are coming into the Autumn period filled with messages for their administrative branches.
As the Policy & Regulation section of this edition of China Media Monitor shows, the issues that dominated the agenda in Beidaihe are now trickling down the system. By all accounts, discussions about media and propaganda were entirely related to questions of how to maintain and enhance control over what is seen, at the very highest levels, as a dangerous situation led by developments in the Internet.
Although resolute steps to control information flow have been underway since early this year, President Jiang Zemin increased the pressure on propaganda chiefs with several statements regarding the media that can only be interpreted as a call to reclaim complete control over primary media organs.
According to reports, Jiang Zemin warned that anti-socialist and decadent ideas could sweep China after certain media and telecommunication sectors are opened to foreign companies under WTO conditions.
He was also reported as expressing fear that media with major fund injections from foreign corporations will tend towards providing politically questionable content and ordered an investigation into media units, websites and printing companies to check for improperly absorbed foreign investment.
As in other sectors, analysts agree that China will continue to impose a range of restrictions over foreign involvement in media following entry to WTO and favour investment from ethnic Chinese sources rather than western interests.
Meanwhile, senior security officials have again called for tighter police management of the Internet in response to the State Information Report released in July. The report showed that China was in urgent need of information security improvements and faced critical lack of controls over key technologies and software.
The Ministry of Public Security has established squads of Internet police that have started raiding key Internet companies and cafes, including those operated by major industry players.
These moves, which may seem to contradict simultaneous moves to open these very sectors, are actually clear warning that China does intend to relax foreign investment restrictions in key areas. By reacting (ahead of WTO) in such a resolute manner, the government is acknowledging that it does expect to be seriously challenged in its goal to retain control over media content, but also that it will continue to play the game it invented - calling media what it will soon cease to be - a propaganda delivery mechanism.