Guiding Hand: The Role of the CCP Central Propaganda Department in the Current Era

The Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a central, guiding, role over the whole of Chinese society in the current era. The Central Propaganda Department oversees the Propaganda and Education System (xuanjiao xitong) which monitors, instructs and censors all of China’s newspapers and magazines, film, television and radio broadcasting, the Internet, the publishing industry, and all aspects of cultural and information production from the highest to the lowest levels of society. In this paper I outline the structure and role of the Central Propaganda Department and the system of thought control it oversees. I consider some recent innovations in the system in the last fifteen years; which combine with traditional methods for a more strengthened approach to control. I examine ongoing preoccupations in the thought work of China’s propaganda high priests. And finally, I argue that contrary to assumptions made by earlier researchers, the Central Propaganda Department and China’s propaganda system have experienced a rebirth, not a decline, in the period since 1989.