Last Friday, in cities and counties across China, it was time to celebrate the crucial role journalists play in society. As the festivities unfolded, there was fun and games. But there were also stern reminders of the imperative of press control. Quite unlike the UN’s World Press Freedom Day, which every May is intended as a day of reflection among journalists and media about press freedom and professional ethics, China’s Journalist’s Day is a time for Party and government officials to reiterate the need for collaboration and compliance.
The sense and spirit of what the Chinese Communist Party calls “the Marxist View of Journalism,” the heart of which is obedience to the Party itself, was conveyed with some emotion in a special video tribute aired on November 8 by China Central Television (CCTV), the state-run broadcaster. Called “Footprints are My Badge of Honor” (足迹是我的勋章), the segment was a montage of national glories — including space program breakthroughs and test successes for the AG600 amphibious aircraft — that had been faithfully documented by state media reporters.
The announced winners of the China Journalism Awards (中国新闻奖), held each year since 1991, were a further sign of how CCP news values have been applied more strictly over the past decade — and particularly since Xi Jinping stressed in 2016 that media must “love the Party, protect the Party and serve the Party.” Tellingly, the top winner in the Special Prize category this year went to a news report from the government’s official Xinhua News Agency with the headline: “Xi Jinping Unanimously Elected Chinese President, CMC chairman” (习近平全票当选中国国家主席、中央军委主席).
The report, published on March 10, 2023, is a blatant propaganda spot about Xi’s formal appointment at head of state during the National People’s Congress — a decision already made politically at the Party Congress the previous October. Aside from a simple recounting of the “vote” and a brief account of Xi’s political biography, the story includes positive quotes from one local Chinese villager and one foreign professor in China. The latter, Josef Gregory Mahoney, is a regular go-to source for reports in China’s state media. “The elections will ensure that there is a steady hand at the helm, which will serve China well, particularly in this new era of new challenges,” Mahoney was quoted as saying in the report.
But the values underlying China Journalist’s Day, the push for control as well as the key changes in the media environment in the country, could also be glimpsed in the myriad local celebrations of the holiday that happened last week.
Control Meets Convergence
One of the clearest trends in local celebrations, from the county level up through prefectural-level cities, was their concentration within local convergence media centers (融媒体中心), or CMCs, which are controlled by local propaganda departments and draw local official media outlets and party-state communication together under one roof. They are part of a decade-long effort by the CCP leadership under Xi Jinping to remake the country’s media system in ways that reconsolidate Party control while accommodating the realities of modern, mobile-based communication.
Municipalities like Beijing and Tianjin now have 10-12 convergence media centers, while provinces tend to have 50-100 each, making for a nationwide network of more than 2,000. Most of these apply what is called a “central kitchen” (中央厨房), or hub, approach — producing for multimedia and social media across multiple platforms.
In Zhejiang province’s Deqing Country (德清县) last week, activities for the day were organized by the “county convergence media center” (县融媒体中心). Participating journalists and press officials played a popular outdoor game called “Down Let the Forest Fall” (不倒森林), in which players arrayed in a circle must transfer colorful meter-long plastic rods using only the palm of one hand. The report on the festivities noted that “on occasion, they failed and [the rods] fell, resulting in laughter all around.”
The same report from local authorities noted the need for journalists to serve the overall development goals of the county, and to “strictly grasp the correct political orientation and [correct] public opinion guidance” (牢牢把握正确的政治方向和舆论导向). These terms, harkening back to the brutal crackdown on political protests in June 1989, are unmistakable references to the need for strict CCP control of the media to maintain regime stability.
In Longgang (龙港), a prefectural-level city in Zhejiang province just south of Wenzhou, celebrations were hosted by the Longgang Convergence Media Center (龙港市融媒体中心), with the local CCP secretary, He Zongjing (何宗静), officiating. In a clear echo of Xi Jinping’s national propaganda notion of “telling China’s story well,” He stressed the need for local journalists to “tell Longgang stories well, and transmit the voice of Longgang well” (讲好龙港故事、传播龙港声音).
Journalists must be guided, said He, by Xi Jinping’s central political concept, “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” Most importantly, once again, they must “strictly grasp the correct political orientation” (牢牢把握正确政治方向). “A happy holiday to you all. You've all worked so hard!" Secretary He exclaimed in a ceremony during which several journalists were honored on stage for their service.
Meanwhile, up north in Shanxi’s Xia County, the Xia County Convergence Media Center (夏县融媒体中心), the center’s head, Dong Xinhui (董新慧), expressed “her fondest thanks” to “journalists on the front lines,” urging them to “a sense of responsibility and mission” (责任感和使命感) in promoting the county and generating a positive external image. There were even musical and dance performances, including a tune called “The Light of the Journalist” (记者之光).
Merging News and Propaganda
As Journalist’s Day celebrations were reported across the country in the past week, one of the most tell-tale signs of what journalism means in China today came as local officials made constant references to “news propaganda” (新闻宣传), which refers explicitly to the use of the news form to conduct state propaganda activities and reach the goals of the leadership.
In a speech to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Xinhua News Agency in 1991, Politburo Standing Committee member Li Ruihuan (李瑞環) said that the key purpose of the "news propaganda front" — and the role, in other words, of the press — was to "comprehensively and accurately propagate the Party's basic line."
In Yingkou, a prefectural-level city in China's northeastern Liaoning province, the local report on Journalist’s Day festivities noted that 10 local journalists had been honored with excellence prizes for their “outstanding contributions to news propaganda.” In Dejiang County, Zhejiang, journalists were urged to “continuously create new prospects for news propaganda” (不断开创新闻宣传新局面).
