Propaganda and Ideological Work in Chinese Communist Party-State under Xi Jinping’s Rule. New Bottle Old Wine or New Bottle New Wine?

Chin-fu Hung, Xinshan Si

Abstract

In the wake of the rapid socio-economic transformations and technological advancement in China, the Chinese propaganda regime found it rather difficult to effectively promote its ideology and thought-work in the new media, smart phone, and cyberspace era. The official ideology, the socialist core values together with the work of public opinion guidance, is seriously being weakened and challenged. The “China Dream,” proposed by the “fifth-generation” leadership of Xi Jinping in November 2012, is the most updated version of Chinese governing ideology, with the main theme of the great renewal of the Chinese nation.  However, the leading patriotic education campaign is constantly confronted with alternative discourses both mediated in Chinese cyberspace and physical space, which intensifies conflict over the seizure of discourse rights between the Chinese propaganda government and the governed, known as netizens and elites.  On the contrary, this paper aims to explore the manner and the extent in which the current Chinese Communist Party-State employs its propaganda regime to enhance its ideology and thought-work in the Internet age.  Does the Chinese propaganda government adapt well in the information age?

 

Keywords: China Dream, Ideology, Party-State, Propaganda, Thought Work

 

 


Full Text:

PDF


References


December 30, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30623612, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Benney, Jonathan (2012), Defending Rights in Contemporary China. London and New York: Routledge.

Brady, Anne-Marie (2009), Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China. Lanham: Rowman& Littlefield Publishers.

Brady, Anne-Marie (2015), “Xi Jinping’s Challenge is to be Strong Enough to Loosen Control,” Financial Times, March 25, HYPERLINK “http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ed8ef304-c97c-11e4-a2d9-00144feab7de.html” l “axzz3WLW1xNWJ” http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ed8ef304-c97c-11e4-a2d9-00144feab7de.html#axzz3WLW1xNWJ., accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Buckley, Chris (2013), “Crackdown on Bloggers Is Mounted by China,” The New York Times, September 10, accessed data: 15 September, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/world/asia/china-cracks-down-on-online-opinion-makers.html?_r=0, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Burgh, Hugo (2003), The Chinese Journalist: Mediating Information in the World’s Most Populous Country. London and New York: Routledge.

Carsten, Paul (2015), “China Censorship Sweep Deletes More Than 60,000 Internet Accounts,” Reuters, February 27, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2971941/China-censorship-sweep-deletes-60-000-Internet-accounts.html, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Castells, Manuel (1989), The Informational City: Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban Regional Process. Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell.

Castells, Manuel (2004), “An Introduction to the Information Age,” in Webster, Frank Blom, RaimoKarvonen, ErkkiMelin, HarriNordenstreng, Kaarle and Puoskari, Ensio (eds.), The Information Society Reader .London and New York: Routledge.

Chen, Zhuang (2012), “The Symbolism of Xi Jinping’s Trip South,” BBC News, December 10, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20662947, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Cohen, David (2013), “China’s Soviet Lessons,” The Diplomat, February 16, http://thediplomat.com/2013/02/xi-jinpings-soviet-lessons/, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Denyer, Simon (2014), “Chinese Journalists Face Tighter Censorship, Marxist Retraining,” The Washington Post, January 10, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinese-journalists-face-tighter-censorship-marxist-re-training/2014/01/10/6cd43f62-6893-11e3-8b5b-a77187b716a3_story.html, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Dikötter, Frank (2010), Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962. New York: Walker &Company Brands.

Fangjing, Ma (2015), “China Intensifies VPN Services Crackdown,” Financial Times, January 23, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/46ad9e26-a2b9-11e4-9630-00144feab7de.html#axzz3UnNHH7lw, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

FCCC (2014), “Position Paper on Working Conditions for Foreign Correspondents in China,” The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC), September 12, http://www.fccchina.org/2014/09/12/fccc-position-paper-2014/, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Foster, Peter (2013), “New York Times Warns China is Subjecting Foreign Journalists to Serious Harassment,” The Telegraph, December 11, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10512559/New-York-Times-warns-China-is-subjecting-foreign-journalists-to-serious-harassment.html, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Freedom House (2014), Freedom in the World 2014: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Jacobs, Andrew (2015), “China Further Tightens Grip on the Internet,” The New York Times, January 29, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/world/asia/china-clamps-down-still-harder-on-internet-access.html?_r=0, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Levin, Dan (2015), “Propaganda Video Offers Glowing Words for China’s President,” The New York Times, September 24, http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20150924/c24sino-propaganda/en-us/, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Lynch, Daniel C. (1999), After the Propaganda State: Media, Politics, and “Thought Work” in Reformed China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Meisels, A. Greer (2012), “What China Learned from the Soviet Union’s Fall,” The Diplomat, July 27, http://thediplomat.com/2012/07/what-china-learned-from-the-soviet-unions-fall/, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Moore, Malcolm (2014), “China kills off discussion on Weibo after internet crackdown”, The Telegraph, January 30, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10608245/China-kills-off-discussion-on-Weibo-after-internet-crackdown.html, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Richburg, Keith B. (2012), “‘Fans’ of Xi Jinping Fawn Online over ‘Pingping,’ China’s New Leader,” The Washington Post, December 12, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-12/world/35789951_1_fan-club-top-job-leader, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Schurmann, Franz (1966), Ideology and Organization in Communist China. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Shambaugh, David (2007),“China’s Propaganda System: Institutions Processes and Efficacy,” The China Journal, No. 57 (January 2007), pp. 25–58.

Shane, Peter M. (2004) (ed.), Democracy Online: The Prospects for Political Renewal Through the Internet. New York and London: Routledge.

The Economist (2013), “Microblogs: Big Vs and bottom lines,” The Economist, August 31, http://www.economist.com/news/china/21584385-authorities-move-against-some-chinas-most-vocal-microbloggers-big-vs-and-bottom-lines, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

The Economist (2014), “Propaganda 2.0,” The Economist, December 13, http://www.economist.com/news/china/21636090-once-caught-back-foot-social-media-communist-party-has-upgraded-its-propaganda, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

The Wall Street Journal (2013), “CCTV Scrutinizes ‘Big V’ Target,” The Wall Street Journal, August 29, http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/08/29/cctv-scrutinizes-big-v-target/, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

The World Bank (2016), “GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$),” http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD?order=wbapi_data_value_2015+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=desc, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Tsou, Tang (2002), “Chinese Politics at the Top: Factionalism or Informal Politics? Balance-of-Power Politics or A Game to Win All?” in Jonathan Unger (ed.), The Nature of Chinese Politics: From Mao to Jiang. New York: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 98–160.

Wan, Adrian (2015), “Censors Close WeChat Accounts for ‘Spreading Distorted Historical Information,’ ”South China Morning Post, January 20, http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1682804/chinese-censors-close-wechat-accounts-spreading-distorted-historical?page=all, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Woo, Serenade (2014), China’s Media War: Censorship, Corruption & Control - IFJ 2014 Press Freedom in China Report. Brussels: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), http://issuu.com/ifjasiapacific/docs/press_freedom_in_china_2014_english, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Yang, Guobin (2009), The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online. New York: Columbia University Press.

Yap, Chuin-Wei and Winkler, Rolfe (2014), “Google’s Gmail Blocked in China,” The Wall Street Journal, December 29, http://www.wsj.com/articles/googles-gmail-blocked-in-china-1419851516, accessed data: 15 September, 2016.

Zhang, Li (2010), In Search of Paradise: Middle-class Living in a Chinese Metropolis. New York and London: Cornell University Press.

Zhao, Yuezhi (1998), Media, Market, and Democracy in China: Between the Party Line and the Bottom Line. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Zhao, Yuezhi(2008), Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict. Lanham: Rowman& Littlefield.

Zheng, Yongnian (2008), Technological Empowerment: The Internet, State, and Society in China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.