Central Propaganda Department Director Calls on Communist Party to Oppose "Hostile Forces" and Guide Public Opinion at Home and Abroad

The following is a partial translation by CECC staff of the text of a speech by Liu Yunshan, who is a member of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Political Bureau, Secretary of the Secretariat, and director of the Communist Party Central Propaganda Department which he gave at the National Propaganda Department Director's Meeting on December 18, 2004, and which was subsequently reprinted under the title "Conscientiously Implement the Completion of the Government's Overall Plan for Solid Propaganda Ideology Work" in the January 2005 edition of "Party Building" magazine, as well as on the People's Daily Web site on January 20, 2005.

3. Embrace the establishment and fulfillment of a scientific development perspective, put forth an effort to create a public opinion atmosphere that is beneficial to stable reform and development. . . . .

Third, it is necessary to increase guidance of major issues in economic and social development. It is necessary to strengthen public sentiment information work, and understand and grasp the major issues of concern to cadres and the masses in a timely manner, and carry out guidance in a proactive and effective manner. Currently, it is necessary to pay attention to doing a good job of performing propaganda guidance for the "three rural" problems, state enterprise reform, increasing employment, social security, etc. It is necessary to explore and grasp rules, insist on positive guidance, do more interpretation and explaining work, reconcile contradictions, and rationalize emotions. It is necessary to correctly employ public opinion supervision measures, and promote the resolution of major economic and social problems. Public opinion supervision must be done in a manner that is objective, just, factual, accurate, and conducive to solving problems, conducive to the work of improving the Party and the government, and conducive to social stability. It is necessary to increase the supervision of reports on major mass incidents. Improve the response speed of news reporting and emergency coordination mechanisms for sudden events, and coordinate the information disseminated by relevant departments. In order to thoroughly propagandize the scientific development perspective, create a public opinion atmosphere that is beneficial to stable reform and development, we must ceaselessly persist in encouraging unity and stability, the policy of focusing on positive propaganda, firmly grasping correct guidance of public opinion, and using correct concern and correct scope to ceaselessly raise the level of public opinion propaganda. Fully exploit the aggressive function of the news media at all levels and of all types, take the initiative to capture the new battlefield of the Internet, and allow public opinion to attain momentum and depth, as well as vigorous completeness and accuracy, and give full play to everyone's strong points to form a united effort.

7. Embrace the establishment and fulfillment of our country's positive national image, and strive to build a great structure of foreign propaganda. It important strategic and overarching work to strengthen propaganda and cultural exchanges abroad and build an international public opinion environment conducive to the development of country. . . . .

Second, it is necessary to aggressively launch an international public opinion struggle. Organize forces to refute attacks by hostile forces based on human rights, religion, Taiwan, Tibet, the "Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organization," "Falun Gong," and other such issues, as well as distortions of large scale incidents. Clarify the facts in a timely manner in order to ensure a correct understanding of the situation. Third, it is necessary to strengthen the building of foreign propaganda mainstream media, and vigorously implement "go outside" projects. Aggressively explore market operating models that comply with international practice and commercial regulations and gradually increase the coverage and circulation of Xinhua, China Central Television, China Radio International, China Daily, and the People's Daily Overseas Edition. Strive to make Xinhua Net, People's Net [People's Daily], CRIOnline [China Radio International], and China Net [China.org.cn - State Council Information Office] world renowned general interest Web sites, and fully bring into play the foreign propaganda utility of our country's main news Web sites. . . . Fifth, it is necessary to further consolidate foreign propaganda resources to form a great foreign propaganda structure. Unite foreign propaganda and domestic propaganda, unite full time propagandists and social forces, and especially strengthen the coordination between foreign diplomacy and foreign propaganda work.