Internet Operators in China Agree to Support Hu Jintao, Marxism, and the Party

April 28, 2006

Fourteen major Internet portals, including Sina.com, Sohu.com, Baidu.com, and Yahoo's Chinese Web site, issued a joint proposal on April 9 calling for China's Internet industry to censor indecent and harmful information, spread the ideas of President Hu Jintao, encourage "passionate love of the motherland," and voluntarily accept supervision, according to a Xinhua article (in Chinese) published on the front page of the April 10 edition of the People's Daily. A front page editorial (in Chinese) in the same People's Daily edition said that the proposal called for "taking the glorious responsibility for teaching the view of the socialist's glories and shames," and "singing the main theme." The former phrase refers to President Hu Jintao's "Eight Glories and Eight Shames" propaganda slogan, and the latter phrase means, according to Liu Yunshan, head of the Central Propaganda Department, to:

Fourteen major Internet portals, including Sina.com, Sohu.com, Baidu.com, and Yahoo's Chinese Web site, issued a joint proposal on April 9 calling for China's Internet industry to censor indecent and harmful information, spread the ideas of President Hu Jintao, encourage "passionate love of the motherland," and voluntarily accept supervision, according to a Xinhua article (in Chinese) published on the front page of the April 10 edition of the People's Daily. A front page editorial (in Chinese) in the same People's Daily edition said that the proposal called for "taking the glorious responsibility for teaching the view of the socialist's glories and shames," and "singing the main theme." The former phrase refers to President Hu Jintao's "Eight Glories and Eight Shames" propaganda slogan, and the latter phrase means, according to Liu Yunshan, head of the Central Propaganda Department, to:

carry forward a nationalist spirit whose core is patriotism . . . carry forward collectivist and socialist ideology and allow it to become the main stream of modern times and the prevailing fashion of the entire society . . . require the coordination of the lines of propaganda of ideological warfare . . . and pluck the people's heart strings to bring about their sympathetic response. . . .

Shortly after the Web portals issued their proposal, Internet information providers and industry groups throughout China made similar announcements:

  • Operators of China's major state-run news Internet portals, including Xinhua, the People's Daily, CCTV, China Daily, China Radio International, the China Youth Daily, and the Guangming Daily, endorsed the Web portals' proposal, according to an April 12 Xinhua report (in Chinese). According to the article, these media organizations "will ceaselessly insist upon correct political direction and public opinion orientation, revolve around the center, serve the general welfare, and vigorously propagandize the policies of the Party's mass line."
  • Four major legal news Web sites, including those of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and Supreme People's Court, issued a proposal on April 19 committing to insisting upon the leadership of the Party, according to a Xinhua report on the same day. That report also said that over 20 blog hosting Web sites had signed a "Go Online in a Civilized Way Self-Discipline Agreement" issued by the Internet Society of China (ISOC), a nationally-registered social organization sponsored and supervised by the Ministry of Information Industry.
  • On April 13, the Beijing Morning News published a list (in Chinese, via the People's Daily Web site) of nearly 50 Beijing Web site operators (including Sina.com, Sohu.com, Baidu.com, and Yahoo's Chinese Web site), who had signed a "Beijing Internet Media Self-Discipline Agreement," dated April 12 committing, among other things, to "insisting upon the correct orientation of public opinion," protecting the Communist Party's secrets, and not publishing anything that would "affect national security." The signatories also committed to having the Beijing Association of Online Media, oversee their implementation of the agreement. The Association is sponsored by the Beijing Municipal Communist Party Central Committee Propaganda Department and the Beijing Municipal Information Office, according to its Web site. The signatories also agreed to establish a "Beijing Internet News Information Advisory Council."
  • Fifteen Web portals signed a self-discipline agreement during a meeting sponsored by Jiangxi province's Communist Party Central Committee's Office of External Propaganda, and committed to "insisting upon correct political direction and public opinion orientation," according to an April 15 Jiangxi Daily article (in Chinese) posted on the Jiangxi provincial government Web site.
  • The Information Services Working Group of the ISOC, issued a proposal on April 13 calling on Web site operators in China to "encourage correct orientation," and saying they must "ceaselessly be lead by the Marxist perspective on news to insist upon the correct political direction and public opinion orientation," and focus on positive propaganda and serving the Party, according to an April 13 Xinhua article (in Chinese, via the Southern Group Web site).
  • Dozens of Web site operators in Shandong province endorsed the ISOC's proposal, according to an April 13 Xinhua article (in Chinese).

China's state-run media portrayed the Internet portals' participation as spontaneous and voluntary, but according to a February 19 Washington Post report, the Beijing Municipal Information Office, an agency that reports to the Central Propaganda Department, summons executives every Friday morning from a dozen Internet news Web sites to attend a meeting. Chen Hua, Director of the Internet Propaganda Management Department usually runs this meeting. According to the Washington Post, "[Chen] or one of his colleagues tells the executives what news they should keep off their sites and what items they should highlight in the week ahead." In addition, each of China's main press censorship agencies - the General Administration of Press and Publication, State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, and Central Propaganda Department - have either used or advocated the use of "self-discipline" agreements and other informal methods to control expression in China. See below for examples.

  • On April 6, the People's Daily published an article by Long Xinmin, head of the General Administration of Press and Publication, saying China should establish an administration system for newspapers and magazines characterized by "leadership of the Party, administration by the government, self-discipline of industry, and legal operations of enterprises."
  • Liu Yunshan, a Communist Party Central Committee member and Director of the Central Propaganda Department said during an August 2005 speech that requiring professional organizations to "tightly integrate professional discipline and restraint with professional moral restraint" will allow employees to "voluntarily" accept government supervision.
  • China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television issued a notice in September 2005 stating that announcers and hosts would "voluntarily" obey professional ethical standards that SARFT had issued in December 2004 and commit to increase their study of political theory, raise their political character and political proficiency, guide people with "correct public opinion," passionately love "the motherland," serve the greater interests of the work of the Communist Party and the government, and implement the Communist Party's "line, principles, and policies."

This is not the first time the Chinese government has used "self-discipline" to control Internet expression:

  • In December 2004, the People's Daily published an article calling on Web site operators in China to increase self-discipline, saying that they must recognize that the Internet "is not only a mass medium, but also is an ideological and public opinion battlefield." The article warned that if they failed to fight for this battlefield, "not only will it influence China's image and investment environment, but more importantly, it will influence the image of the Party and the government."
  • In September 2004, Sina.com, Sohu.com, and Netease formed a "Wireless Internet Honesty Self-Discipline Alliance" in order to "build an honest and prosperous Internet and resist harmful information."
  • In December 2003, Sina, Sohu, Netease and dozens of other Internet news outlets jointly signed an Internet News Information Service Self-Discipline Pledge promising to "voluntarily submit to government administration and public supervision."
  • In March 2002, hundreds of Internet companies in China signed the Internet Society of China's Public Pledge of Self-Regulation and Professional Ethics for China's Internet Industry which included pledges to "Carry forward the . . . moral code of socialist spiritual civilization," and to "Monitor the information publicized by users on Web sites according to law and remove harmful information promptly."