Government/Politics - 298. page

An article on reform of China’s culture system was published on the website of the Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, addressing bottlenecks and recommendations. The reform moved from pilot programs to full implementation in March 2006. One of the key bottlenecks, according to the article, is “some of the culture enterprises blindly maximize their market profits,” and “have increasingly led to economic benefits diverging from social benefits” and to a greater disparity of income. The recommendation is to uphold the Party’s leadership in the reform, adherence to Marxism and ensuring the dominance of state-owned culture enterprises in the culture market.

Source: The Party School of The Chinese Communist Party, April 14, 2010 http://www.cntheory.com/news/Dshcdssdjt/2010/414/104141520769BBIIKAJ192JK20I11F.html

On April 11, 2010. Nanfang Metropolitan published an article by History Scholar Hong Zhenquai, “Loving Ones Country Does Not Mean the Same as Loving the Imperial Court.” The article suggested that nowadays many people misunderstand the relationship between the people, the country, and the imperial court (or the government in modern society). Mencius [a philosopher from the fourth century B.C. who defended the teachings of Confucius against other philosophies] made public that “people are the most important, followed by the country, with the emperor coming last.” An explanation for the confusion is that the sitting government misleads people into believing that “loving the court is representative of loving the country.”

The article makes a case for people having oversight and control over the government. The article received a lot of compliments for its boldness, given the CCP’s media control. An unconfirmed blog message on Aiyuan said that Nanfang Metropolitan Editor Zhu Di was chastised (and lost her job) for publishing the article. The article is no longer available on the website of Nanfang Daily (Nanfang Metropolitan’s parent company), but can be found on many overseas Chinese sites.

Source:
1. Tianya website, April 14, 2010
http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/develop/1/408089.shtml
2. Aiyuan website, April 17, 2010
http://aiyuan.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/%E4%B8%80%E7%AF%87%E8%AE%A9%E7%BC%96%E8%BE%91%E4%B8%A2%E6%8E%89%E9%A5%AD%E7%A2%97%E7%9A%84%E6%96%87%E7%AB%A0%EF%BC%9A%E7%88%B1%E5%9B%BD%E5%AE%B6%E4%B8%8D%E7%AD%89%E4%BA%8E%E7%88%B1%E6%9C%9D%E5%BB%B7/

Cai Wu, the Minister of Culture, admitted that Western soft power continues to remain stronger than that of China. He saw no fundamental change, and believed that the status quo is not comparable to China’s rising international status. He expressed that China should “expand the international influence of Chinese culture, and, at the same time, truly protect the safety of domestic culture.” To increase China’s soft power is to, among other things, “promote understanding and respect for China’s core interests.”

Source: Xinhua, April 9, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newmedia/2010-04/09/content_13323486.htm

At a national conference of chiefs of propaganda authorities on April 9 in Beijing, Li Changchun, a member of the Politburo standing committee and the party’s head of propaganda stressed “vigorously developing cultural causes.” 

2010 is the fifth anniversary of three new Party Schools. As social unrest increases, the Party urgently needs large-scale training of its leaders and significant improvement in the quality of cadres.  Pudong Cadres School in Shanghai has 5 labs. One is to teach Party leaders how to lead the media. Another one is to simulate social unrest and teach crisis management. The other two schools are in Jingangshan and Yanan.

Prior to 2005, Party leadership training primarily was conducted at the Party School of the Chinese Communist Party and National School of Administration under the State Council, both in Beijing.

Source: China Review News, April 4, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1012/7/9/4/101279416.html?coluid=151&kindid=0&docid=101279416&mdate=0404085220

Xinhua reported that Propaganda Minister Liu Yunshan, a member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and the Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat, gave a speech on March 25, 2010, at the Forum on Promoting Popular Contemporary Chinese Marxism, a forum commemorating the 100th birth anniversary of Marxist philosopher Ai Siqi. Liu said: “(We should) use the Chinese socialist theoretical system better to arm the whole Party and educate the people, providing a powerful ideological guarantee and spiritual impetus for developing the cause of the Party and the nation.”

As for how to popularize Marxism, Liu suggested to make good use of mass media such as newspapers, radio, TV and the Internet and to use plain language and familiar examples with a mixture of reason and sentiment to enhance the propaganda effect.

Source: Xinhua, March 25, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-03/25/content_13245827.htm

Public Security Bureaus chiefs, presidents of courts and prison political commissars have been called on to go through mandatory training with increased responsiblities to neutralized social conflicts and maintain national stability. A special Symposium started on March 20 for district and municipal level public security bureau chiefs. The fifth class for presidents of intermediate and lower courts opened on March 23. On the same day, prison political commissars throughout China attended the first class in Beijing.

Source: Legal Daily, March 29, 2010
http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/bm/content/2010-03/29/content_2097065.htm?node=20733

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Propaganda Department banned the Chinese media from reporting on 18 sensitive issues. Asahi Shimbun reported as front-page news on March 25 that Liu Yunshan, the Head of the Propaganda Department, ordered the ban on March 21, a day before Google announced its decision to stop censoring information on its Chinese site. The 18 issues include the Renminbi appreciation, official corruption, the high cost of medicine, food poisoning, turmoil in Xinjiang and Tibet, the gap between the rich and the poor, household registration reform, the unemployment of college graduates, corruption in handling Sichuan Earthquake donations, corruption of the police and gangsters in Chongqing, sky-rocketing real estate prices, and so on.

Concerning the Renminbi appreciation and Google’s refusal to censor information in China, the media was told that only Xinhua can report on those two issues. However the media can criticize the US.

It’s a sign that the Propaganda Department is trying to strengthen its control over the media after its negotiations with Google failed.

Source: Radio France International, March 25, 2010
http://www.chinese.rfi.fr/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD/20100325-