Censorship Agency Gets New Director, Calls for "Uniformity" of Political Ideology

Xinhua reported (in Chinese) on December 27, 2005, that Long Xinmin had replaced Shi Zongyuan as Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), the agency responsible for enforcing the legal barriers that the government uses to prohibit average citizens from exercising their constitutional right to freedom of the press. According to a biography (in Chinese) published in Xinhua, Long joined the Communist Party in 1973, and has served as Director of the Standing Committee for the Beijing Municipal Propaganda Department, Dean of the Beijing Municipal Party School, and Party Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Press and Publication Administration.

In a speech to the National Press and Publication Directors Conference on December 28, 2005, (a summary of which the People's Daily Web site posted (in Chinese) on December 31), Long indicated that China's news media and publishing industry would continue to move toward marketization. He also emphasized that the Chinese government would "place a high degree of emphasis on the work of protecting copyrights," not only to encourage the development of China's domestic copyright industry, but also because the copyright issue has "complicated the handling of China's relationships with other nations."

Long also emphasized that the Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department would continue to wield significant influence over GAPP policy during his tenure:

Central leadership cadres have told us time and again that we must vigorously increase administration of press and publishing. . . . If we want to deepen reforms of the press and publishers, develop press and publication enterprises, and strengthen the press and publishers, the key is to strengthen the leadership of the Communist Party, and establish a grand cadre of press and publication workers who are politically strong, professionally spirited, hard working, and disciplined. . . . We must earnestly study and implement the spirit of the National Propaganda Directors Seminar.

At the August 2005 National Propaganda Directors Seminar, Liu Yunshan, the head of the Central Propaganda Department, called on Party propagandists to focus on ensuring that China maintains a single and unified "guiding ideology," -- Marxism. GAPP Director Long echoed Liu, saying "Press and publication departments and copyright agencies at all levels, and leaders and Party members and cadres at all levels of press and publication enterprises must increase their political consciousness . . . maintain a high degree of uniformity with the political ideology of the Party Central Committee under Comrade Hu Jintao as secretary, and insist on never wavering from Marxism as the guiding direction of press and publication work."

Long told Chinese news and publishing regulators that they must "insist on correct political orientation" and increase their "political acumen and political discrimination capabilities." He praised the government's administration, and the Party's leadership of Party newspapers and Party magazines, as well as the "political quality" of their government and Party personnel. Long complained, however, that "small newspapers and small magazines are an outstanding problem," and that although propaganda departments and press and publication administrations have "done a large volume of work," they had not been strict enough in their administration. Long said that press and publication authorities not only should exercise their authority to license publishers, but also should carry out their responsibilities to administer and supervise publishers after they are licensed.