Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda departments targeted in graft review
China’s Central; Publicity Department and government censor to face review
It’s the turn of the Communist Party’s top propaganda departments to come under the scrutiny of the party’s internal disciplinary inspection process.
The anti-graft agency announced the target of its latest review yesterday, just days after President Xi Jinping’s rare high-profile tour of top party mouthpieces where he delivered a keynote directive on state media’s propaganda work.
The Central Publicity Department, and the government censor – the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television – along with 30 other ministries and government agencies will be reviewed during the year’s first round of inspection tours, according to the Central Commission of Discipline Inspection.
Since the revolutionary days, the party has stressed that “the gun barrels and the pen holders” were the two most important elements to staying in power. Xi kicked off a massive campaign to overhaul the People’s Liberation Army last autumn.
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Propaganda work is under the portfolio of ideological tsar Liu Yunshan, the fifth ranking Politburo Standing Committee leader. The propaganda department, an organ of the party instead of the government, ranks higher than any ministry in the State Council.
