On October 16, 2011, Radio France Internationale reported on the discussions taking place at the Sixth Plenary Session of 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, held from October 15 to 18, on the subject of China’s cultural system reforms. The focus was mainly on strengthening the CCP’s control and monitoring of the media and Internet communication. The participants explored how to use the Internet and the media to serve the Chinese Communist Party before the upcoming new generation of CCP leaders come to power next year.
China currently has 500 million Internet users; 200 million of them are micro-blog users. Beijing authorities are more and more worried about the power of the Internet to influence public opinion. In addition, the CCP has recently stepped up its monitoring of some reformist newspapers.
Source: Radio France Internationale, October 16, 2011
http://www.chinese.rfi.fr/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20111016-%E4%B8%AD%E5%85%B1%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%83%E5%B1%8A%E5%85%AD%E4%B8%AD%E5%85%A8%E4%BC%9A%E4%B8%BA%E4%BD%95%E8%81%9A%E7%84%A6%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E8%AE%AE%E9%A2%98