1-7 October 2023

Weekly newsletter tracking high-level policy signals sent by China’s top leaders. For more information, visit About Five Things.

Commentary

The important thing about propaganda is not what it says but its intended effect.

So when China’s leaders unveil a major propaganda initiative on culture and cultural work, and that’s by far the most widely reported subject in China’s official news media, what are they looking to achieve?

Reading the articles that emerged from around the National Ideological and Cultural Work Conference, a two-day gathering of propaganda officials from across the country held from 6-7 October, three things sprung to mind:

First, and most obviously, that China’s leaders believe officials across the country haven’t been paying enough attention to ideological work, and that now they must make this a priority.

This concern might be attributable to concerns about the public discontent of late last year that forced China’s leaders to abandon their zero-Covid policy, and possibly also to fears that a slowing economy might lead to further and bigger shows of dissatisfaction.

All the same, as an ideological response to a policy problem, it can at best be a supplementary answer to the economic questions now being posed to China’s leaders.

Second, that China’s leaders believe they need to redefine their mission.

This isn’t entirely new. For the last year, promoting “Chinese-style modernisation” has been one of Xi Jinping’s rallying calls, particularly during ideological campaigns.

Mentions of “modernization” in official Chinese news articles, July 2022-September 2023

Still, it seems worth underlining that China’s leaders think the framework in which people think of national purpose needs reworking. The continuing leadership of the Communist Party may remain their principal imperative, and the country’s economic development their most concrete task, but patriotism can officially also have a major role.

And third, that when it comes to putting culture in that framework, it has to be defined in normative terms – not as how things are, but as how people should see them as being. This, of course, is the work of ideology – drawing up guidelines not just that people should think within, but which they accept as defining the reality of the world they inhabit, and as such unquestionable.

The news of China’s propaganda push based around “Xi Jinping Thought on Culture” received negligible coverage outside China (as far as we can see, the only English-language news media which covered it was Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, here).

Given the prominence of its coverage in Chinese media, however, it seems likely to mark the start of a major and long-running ideological campaign aimed at reworking the framework in which people in China see their country’s next stage of development.

Top-ranked articles in China’s official media for 1-7 October 2023
% = percentage of publications monitored carrying the article

1. Create new glory for Chinese culture
铸就中华文化新辉煌
Xinhua News Agency, 6 October 2023
Chinese / Machine translation/ 50%

2. Signed article in People’s Daily: General Secretary leads us to write a new chapter of modern civilization of the Chinese nation
人民日报署名文章：总书记引领我们谱写中华民族现代文明新华章
Xinhua News Agency, 7 October 2023
Chinese / Machine translation/ 38%

3. Unwaveringly advancing towards the grand goal of building a strong country and rejuvenating the nation
坚定不移朝着强国建设、民族复兴的宏伟目标奋勇前进
People’s Daily, 1 October 2023
Chinese / Machine translation/ 25%

4. Strive to achieve the annual economic and social development goals
努力实现全年经济社会发展目标
Xinhua News Agency, 1 October 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 22%

5. Unity is strength, confidence surpasses gold
团结就是力量 信心赛过黄金
Xinhua News Agency, 30 September 2023
Chinese / Machine translation / 19%

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