People's Daily, Xinhua Cite Successes of General Administration of Press and Publication

On June 21 Xinhua and the print edition of the People's Daily carried stories lauding China's General Administration of Press and Publication ("GAPP") for "promoting supervision and forwarding administration in accordance with law." The Xinhua version of the story mentioned what it termed "forceful acts" that "provided an environment conducive to the protection of intellectual property and the creative abilities of the people, and for the healthy flourishing and development of the news publishing industry":

• Launch of a campaign against illegal publishing activities focused on illegal political publications. In January 2005, Xinhua reported that government officials seized over 200 million "illegal publications" in 2004, and a CECC review of official reports shows that authorities seized hundreds of thousands of these publications solely because of their political content. The campaign, referred to as "Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications," is, according to one government report, first and foremost an "anti-infiltration and anti-subversion political struggle."
• Banning of newspapers and periodicals. In April 2005, the GAPP announced it had banned 60 publications, and stated it was necessary to "strengthen the work of reading and evaluating [publications], and to track down the source and background situation of contents that have severe problems." According to a senior GAPP official, some of these publications were banned because they violated Chinese laws against establishing a publication without government authorization.
• Establishment of a 24 hour, real-time content censorship mechanism for Internet publications. Chinese publishing and propaganda officials have said they must increase supervision and monitoring of "newly developing channels and newly developing domains, especially the Internet." Chinese authorities portray the Internet as an "ideological battlefield," and deploy personnel to "guide" Internet public opinion in a manner beneficial to the Party and the government.
• Increased supervision and management of the orientation of opinion in publications and on the Internet. In January 2005, a Communist Party propaganda official told a news work meeting in Shanxi that every type of news media in China "must make correct orientation the foundation of their life's work," and that no type of news media could be allowed to "have a different standard, or form a second public opinion forum."
• Prosecution of the sale of book numbers. As the CECC noted in its 2004 Annual Report, China's law requires that every publication in China have a book number, and the GAPP maintains exclusive control over the distribution of these numbers, and thereby who is allowed to publish. GAPP officials have explicitly linked the allotment of book numbers to publishers' political orientation. According to an April 2005 Beijing News report, some private publishers in China put out over 100 books a year, primarily through the illegal purchase of book numbers.
• Prosecution of unauthorized cooperation with foreigners. In April 2005, Xinhua reported the GAPP had issued a Notice reminding people that "newspapers and magazines may only be published by publishing work units approved by publishing administration agencies," and informing them that: "in order to safeguard China's periodical publishing order, illegal foreign language publications shall be banned in accordance with the law." Government and Party authorities portray foreign countries in general, and Western countries in particular, as enemies who are trying to use the media to infiltrate China.
• "Moving forward of the line of demarcation." This phrase (guankou qianyi) is a reference to tightening prior restraints, and imposing increased scrutiny of publications at an earlier point in the publication screening process.

According to both the Xinhua and the People's Daily versions of the article, future plans for reforming China's publishing market include drafting several new publishing regulations, including "Regulations on the Administration of the Publishing Market," "Regulations on the Protection of Information Network Broadcasting Rights," and "Regulations on the Administration of Internet Game Publishing," and revising several existing regulations:

• Regulations on the Administration of Publishing, which currently prohibits Chinese citizens from engaging in publishing without a government sponsor and at least 300,000 yuan in registered capital.
• Interim Provisions on the Administration of Newspapers, which currently prohibits Chinese citizens from publishing newspapers with prior approval from the GAPP.
• Interim Provisions on the Administration of Periodicals, which currently prohibits Chinese citizens from publishing magazines with prior approval from the GAPP.
• Rules on the Administration of Electronic Publications, which currently prohibits Chinese citizens from publishing, copying, or importing electronic publications without prior approval from the government.