Government Censors Focus on Audio-Visual Products With Historical Content

July 31, 2006

The Chinese government will increase censorship of audio-visual products relating to major historical events, according to a June 29 China Industry and Commerce Report article posted on the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) Web site and a June 15 General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) circular.

The Chinese government will increase censorship of audio-visual products relating to major historical events, according to a June 29 China Industry and Commerce Report article posted on the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) Web site and a June 15 General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) circular.

The article said that the SAIC had issued a circular requiring that all SAIC bureaus should begin coordinating with other members of the Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force to "screen out undesirable content from the audio-visual market." According to the article: "recently a large number of audio-visual products with political content have appeared on the audio-visual market ... and their contents relate to important historical figures and major historical events." The article said SAIC had called for the immediate investigation and confiscation of all "illegal" audio-visual products with contents relating to important historical figures and major historical events.

While it appears the SAIC circular is not publicly available, the SAIC may have been "retransmitting" a circular which the Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force issued on June 2. That circular said that "illegal" audio-visual products were "distorting history," and provided a list of several products which it said had been "published and distributed by legitimate publishing houses," but which had "problems with content or orientation," such as:

  • Ten Years of the Cultural Revolution;
  • The Tiananmen Incident;
  • The Truth of Jiang Qing and the "Empress of the Red City"; and
  • Such was Lin Biao's Cause of Death.

The GAPP circular began by noting that, under current law, it is illegal to publish on certain topics without registering with the government:

According to the stipulations of the Regulation on the Administration of Audio-Visual Products and the Measures for the Registration of Book, Periodical, Audio-Visual, and Electronic Publication Important Topic Selections, any content that relates to national security, social stability, and other areas, and any audio-visual production topic selections that might have a relatively significant influence on national security, economy, culture, military, etc., all fall within the category of important topic selections, and must be registered prior to publication.

That circular provided several justifications for the need to eliminate undesirable audio-visual products at this time, including:

  • "[M]any audio-visual publishing units are blindly pursuing better sales, or are fond of introducing foreign programs, and are publishing or introducing audio-visual products with important topic selections relating to the Cultural Revolution, major historical events and figures, or important subject matter without authorization that have not been registered, and some audio-visual products content include severe mistakes, and create problems of adverse influence on society."
  • "The domain of audio-visual publishing has always been an important ideological battleground for the Communist Party, and strengthening the administration of audio-visual publishing activities affects the entire Communist Party, and the general welfare of the nation, it affects the political stability of the nations, social stability, and cultural security, and we must not lower our guard or become indifferent."
  • "In 2006, there is a relatively large number of major events and memorial days: The 85th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party, ... the 30th anniversary of the passing of Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, and other leadership figures, the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Cultural Revolution, and 30th anniversary of its conclusion. ..."

As a result, the circular called on GAPP bureaus to "maintain a clear head" and "strengthen their political sensitivity" with respect to commentary on important historical events and figures.

China's Communist Party does not tolerate the publication of opinions that are inconsistent with its orthodoxy on historical events and figures. In January 2006, Party officials ordered the China Youth Daily to suspend publication of its "Freezing Point" weekly because it had published an essay regarding Chinese history textbooks that officials claimed contradicted historical facts and violated news propaganda discipline. Freezing Point was allowed to resume publication on the condition that it dismiss Li Datong from his position as Editor-in-Chief, and Lu Yuegang from his position as Deputy Editor. In addition, it had to publish an essay in the first issue of the relaunched Freezing Point weekly to refute the objectionable earlier essay.

Like the SAIC and GAPP, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) restricts the publication of information and ideas that conflict with the Communist Party's orthodoxy on historical events and figures. For example, under its Circular Regarding Restructuring Inspection and Examination Measures for Important Revolution and Historical Material Movie and Television Projects and Completed Films, SARFT requires screenplays that describe "major events and important leaders and their families in Communist Party, government, and military history" to be approved by both the government and the Party. In April 2006 SARFT issued the Interim Measures on the Administration of the Recording and Notification of Television Program Film Production, which removed the previous requirement that television program producers obtain government approval for planned television dramas, but maintained requirements that programs relating to revolutionary history must have government approval.

In a November 2004 report delivered to the 2004 National Book Publishing Administration Work Meeting, a GAPP official warned:

If publishers are careless about strictly screening topic selection, then serious orientation and quality problems will occur. . . . Therefore, publishers' screening of the selection of topics is not merely a professional matter, but rather is a serious political responsibility. Therefore, topic selection screening is a political system.

For additional regulations imposing government censorship on history and politics, see: