A journalist with the Taiwan based Central News Agency reported that, when traveling to Nanjing on a business trip in early November, she found two copies of English versions of Xi Jinping’s Talks about Governing the Country in her hotel room cabinet. She thought that it was an impressive practice for the hotel to place the writings of the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the hotel room, instead of the Bible, as is the practice in many hotels in the West. She later found out that the Xinhua Newspaper Media Group in Jiangsu province had actually invested in and built the hotel where she had stayed. Xinhua News Agency is the official propaganda outlet for the Chinese Communist Party.
This practice still shows China’s ambition to promote its ideology to people from other countries. As Xinhua News Agency reported, the circulation of Xi Jinping’s Talks about Governing the Country has exceeded 20 million copies and has been translated into more than 20 languages. At the end of October, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued the “Outline for Implementing the Moral Development of Citizens in the New Era.” It included the information on the regulation of Internet contents.
In terms of book publications, the general morale in the country is not high. Since last year, the film, news, and publishing industries have been placed under the management of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party of China. The number of officially allowed book titles is shrinking and there are more controls on what kind of books can be published. A senior editor said that it would take half a year to apply for even a book number for books in social sciences. If it were a development, arts appreciation, or health book, the book number would be approved in a week.
Source: Central News Agency, November 10, 2019
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/firstnews/201911100052.aspx