By David Bandurski — The head of China’s State Council Information Office (SCIO), the primary external voice of China’s government and the chief office in charge of domestic Internet controls, said yesterday in remarks setting out the general direction of external news and propaganda for 2010 that China “must effectively engage the international struggle for public opinion” and “raise our nation’s cultural soft power.” [Frontpage photo: SCIO head Wang Chen, from SCIO website.]
At China’s annual national conference on external news and propaganda, held in Beijing on January 4 and 5, SCIO director Wang Chen (王晨) outlined core tasks for the coming year, including “being firmer and more timely in broadcasting China’s voice to the world.”
Wang emphasized that China must “do external propaganda well this year, planning comprehensively with the overall situations domestically and internationally taken into account together.”
China must, he said, “grab the discourse power, win the primary leadership right [in public opinion], and enhance its international communication capacity, working to realize an external public opinion power commensurate with China’s level of economic development and its international status.”
China must, he added, “improve its working mechanisms and muster various forces [within the government] in order to form a sizable external propaganda structure, working hard to raise our nation’s cultural soft power; [and China must] establish and project a favorable national image of booming development and cultural openness, continuing to create an objective and favorable international public opinion climate for China’s development and progress.”
[Posted by David Bandurski, January 6, 2010, 2:32pm HK]