Mass media in China
The mass media in the People's Republic of China primarily consists of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since the start of the 21st century, the Internet has also emerged as an important form of mass media and is under the direct supervision and control of the government of the People's Republic of China and the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Media in China is strictly controlled and censored by the CCP, with the main agency that oversees the nation's media being the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP. The largest media organizations, including the People's Daily, the Xinhua News Agency, and the China Media Group, are all controlled by the CCP.
Before the founding of the PRC in 1949, mass media in China was diverse, and less centralized. During the Republican era, the media played a big role in political discussion, intellectual debate, and cultural ideals. While censorship still was prevalent, the press landscape remained more varied than under Mao.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and until the 1980s, almost all media outlets in mainland China have been state-run. State media adheres to the concept of "politicians running the newspapers". Privately owned media outlets only began to emerge at the onset of the reform and opening up, although state media continue to hold a significant market share. All media continues to follow regulations imposed by the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP on subjects considered taboo by the CCP, including but not limited to the legitimacy of the party, pro-democracy movements, human rights in Tibet, the persecution of Uyghur people, pornography, and the banned religious topics, such as the Dalai Lama and Falun Gong. Under the general secretaryship of Xi Jinping, propaganda in media has become more prevalent and homogeneous. All journalists are required to study Xi Jinping Thought to maintain their press credentials. Hong Kong, which has maintained a separate media ecosystem from mainland China, is also witnessing increasing self-censorship.
Reporters Without Borders consistently ranks the PRC very poorly on media freedoms in their annual releases of the World Press Freedom Index, labeling the Chinese government as having "the sorry distinction of leading the world in repression of the Internet"., the PRC ranked 178 out of 180 nations on the World Press Freedom Index.
History
Under Mao
In both the Yan'an era of the 1930s and the early 1950s, the CCP encouraged grassroots journalism in the form of "worker-peasant correspondents," an idea originating from the Soviet Union.In 1957, during the Anti-Rightist Campaign, Mao Zedong put forward the concept of "politicians running the newspapers". Mao said that "the writing of articles, and especially lead editorials, must be responsible to the overall interests of the party, united closely with the political situation," continuing by saying "this is what is meant by politicians running the newspapers".
During the early period of the Cultural Revolution, freedom of the press in China was at its peak. Independent political groups could publish broadsheets and handbills, as well as leaders' speeches and meeting transcripts which would normally have been considered highly classified. During those years, several Red Guard organizations operated independent printing presses to publish newspapers, articles, speeches, and big-character posters. Media during this time was dominated by the Two Newspapers and One Journal, referring to the People's Daily, People's Liberation Army Daily and Red Flag.
Mobile film units brought Chinese cinema to the countryside and were crucial to the standardization and popularization of cultural during this period, particularly including revolutionary model operas. During the Cultural Revolution's early years, mobile film teams traveled to rural areas with news reels of Mao meeting with Red Guards and Tiananmen Square parades, where they were welcomed ceremoniously. These news reels became known as hong bao pian, analogous to how the Little Red Books were dubbed hong bao shu.
Reform and opening up
Media controls were most relaxed during the 1980s under paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, until they were tightened in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Journalists were active participants in the 1989 demonstrations that culminated in the massacre, which made it all but impossible to reconcile the growing desire of mainland Chinese journalists for control over their own profession with the CCP's interest in not letting that happen. There have even been occasional acts of open, outright defiance of the CCP, though these acts remain rare.After Deng Xiaoping's 1992 southern tour, the culture industry of China became increasingly commercialized. Media controls were relaxed again under CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin in the late 1990s, but the growing influence of the Internet and its potential to encourage dissent led to heavier regulations again under CCP general secretary Hu Jintao. Non-governmental media outlets that were allowed to operate within China were no longer required to strictly follow every journalistic guideline set by the CCP.
In 1998, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television began the Connecting Every Village with Radio and TV Project, which extended radio and television broadcasting to every village in China. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the ways in which the CCP operated—especially the introduction of reforms aimed at decentralizing power—spurred a period of greater media autonomy in several ways:
- The growth of "peripheral"—local and some regional—media. This trend decentralized and dampened CCP oversight. In general, the greater the distance is between reporters and media outlets, and Beijing and important provincial capitals, the greater their leeway.
- A shift toward administrative and legal regulation of the media and away from more fluid and personal oversight. CCP efforts to rely on regulations rather than whim to try to control the media—as evidenced by the dozens of directives set forth when the State Press and Publications Administration was created in 1987, and by new regulations in 1990 and 1994—probably were intended to tighten CCP control, making it a matter of law rather than personal relationships. In fact, however, these regulations came at a time when official resources were being stretched more thinly and individual officials were becoming less willing—and less able—to enforce regulations.
- Vicissitudes of media acceptability. Since the early 1990s, the types of media coverage deemed acceptable by the regime have risen sharply. Growing uncertainties about what is permissible and what is out of bounds sometimes work to the media's interests. Often, however, these uncertainties encourage greater self-censorship among Chinese journalists and work to the benefit of the CCP's media control apparatus.
In preparation for the 17th National Party Congress in 2007, new restrictions were placed on all sectors of the press, Internet-users, bloggers, website managers, and foreign journalists, more than 30 of whom have been arrested since the start of the year. In addition, a thousand discussion forums and websites have been shut down, and "a score of dissidents" have been imprisoned since July 2007.
In efforts to stem growing unrest in China, the propaganda chief of the State Council, Hua Qing, announced in the People's Daily that the government was drafting a new press law that would lessen government involvement in the news media. In the editorial, Hu Jintao was said to have visited the People's Daily offices and said that large-scale public incidents should be "accurately, objectively and uniformly reported, with no tardiness, deception, incompleteness or distortion". Reports by Chinese media at the time indicated a gradual release from CCP control. For example, the detention of anti-government petitioners placed in mental institutions was reported in a state newspaper, later criticized in an editorial by the English-language China Daily. At the time, scholars and journalists believed that such reports were a small sign of opening up in the media.
Under Xi Jinping
Since Xi Jinping became in 2012 the CCP general secretary, censorship has been significantly stepped up. Under his general secretaryship, propaganda has become more prevalent and homogeneous in media. In 2016, Xi visited the Symposium on News Reporting and Public Opinion, where he stated that "party-owned media must hold the family name of the party" and that the state media "must embody the party's will, safeguard the party's authority". Under Xi, investigative journalism has been driven almost to extinction within China. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2023, China ranks as the "worst jailer of journalists," with Uyghurs making up almost half of all imprisoned journalists.In 2018, as part of an overhaul of the CCP and government bodies, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television was renamed into the National Radio and Television Administration with its film, news media and publications being transferred to the Central Propaganda Department. Additionally, the control of China Central Television, China National Radio and China Radio International was transferred to the newly established China Media Group under the control of the Central Propaganda Department. The same year, provinces and cities began to establish international communication centers.
In 2019, the All-China Journalists Association updated its code of ethics and mandatory exam requiring journalists to be guided by Xi Jinping Thought. In September 2021, the NRTA prohibited broadcasters from displaying what it termed "sissy men and other abnormal aesthetics." In October 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission published rules restricting private capital in "news-gathering, editing, broadcasting, and distribution."
In 2020, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China stated that China used coronavirus prevention measures, intimidation and visa curbs to limit foreign reporting. According to Radio Free Asia, in December 2022, the National Press and Publication Administration issued a directive stating that in order to obtain credentials as a professional journalist, they must pass a national exam and "...must support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, conscientiously study, publicize and implement Xi Jinping's thoughts on the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, resolutely implement the party's theory, line, principles and policies, and adhere to the correct political direction and public opinion guidance."
Domestically, all journalists must study Xi Jinping Thought through the Xuexi Qiangguo app in order for them to renew their press credentials. Journalists are instructed to "correctly guide public opinion." In the 2020s, state media outlets have increasingly created "media studios" focused on foreign "public opinion guidance" and run by small teams that obscure state or party ownership.