By David Bandurski — A top theorist involved in drafting Chinese President Hu Jintao’s political report to the 17th National Congress of the CCP in 2007 has been promoted to the post of deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department (CPD), according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The appointee, Wang Xiaojun (王晓晖), was formerly deputy secretary general of the Central Propaganda Department and chairman of the CPD’s Theory Office.
An elite party theorist and commentary writer, Wang replaces Jiao Li (焦利), who in May this year was appointed to take the place of Zhao Huayong (赵化勇) as chairman at China Central Television.

[ABOVE: Wang Xiaojun replaces Jiao Li as deputy head of China’s Central Propaganda Department.]

Mainland news reports on Wang Xiaojun’s appointment offered few details about his work at the propaganda department, where he has served for a number of years. But a report in Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao today said it was Wang Xiaojun who spearheaded the formulation of Hu Jintao’s “Six Why’s” earlier this year.
According to Chinese media reports, Wang arrived in Nanchang on August 7 for his first official visit as deputy propaganda chief. During a tour of the area, Wang and his entourage visited a memorial commemorating the August 1, 1927, “Nanchang Uprising” (南昌八一起义), which in CCP lore marks the birth of China’s Red Army, as well as other sites of party patriotism.
A report on the local government website in Nanchang also mentioned Wang’s visit to sites commemorating Deng Xiaoping’s work in Changsha, where Deng and his wife, Zhuo Lin, were exiled for three years beginning in October 1969, during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution.
[Posted by David Bandurski, August 10, 2009, 12:33am HK]