Minitrue: Chinese Propaganda Officials to Lead Journalism Schools

Source: Mainichi

The Chinese Communist Party has decided to become directly involved in the management of the country’s top journalism schools and strengthen the administration of those universities, it was learned Sunday from university and media sources.
The moves appear to be aimed at promoting “thought reform” to reject “Western values” such as freedom of the press and to foster human resources loyal to the party, according to the sources.
The leadership of President Xi Jinping senses a crisis, in the words of one party source, that “it is at universities and in the mass media where reformists (who support such values as democracy) have the most influence.”
Therefore, it intends to thoroughly police thought at universities that train people for careers in the news industry, and also beef up the media’s role in serving as the “throat and tongue” of the Communist Party to relay propaganda.
According to the sources, the universities targeted by the measure include Peking University, Beijing’s Communication University of China, Shanghai’s Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University in Hubei Province, and Jinan University in Guangdong Province.
Under the plan, the party’s Central Propaganda Department, which guides and supervises the media, will from next year begin dispatching staff to those universities to take over the top posts of their journalism schools.
In addition, the party will also guide the schools’ curriculums and tighten the auditing of associated budgets.
Part of the plan has already been put into effect, with party authorities earlier this month informing some university officials of the contents of the plan. There are indications it will involve thorough instruction in ideologies such as Marxism.
Around May, university officials in Beijing and Shanghai were reported as saying that Chinese authorities had banned the discussion in university classes of seven subjects including “freedom of the press,” “citizen rights,” “universal values” implying respect for human rights and democracy, and “historical mistakes of the Communist Party.”
However, there has been a huge backlash on university campuses subject to the Communist Party’s latest clampdown, with some pointing out that its plan will face difficulties.
Relatedly, pressure has been intensified on intellectuals active in the country’s universities, as seen by the decision by Peking University in October to sack Xia Yeliang, an outspoken economics professor known for his calls for the promotion of democracy in China.
In addition, the Communist Party has ordered some 250,000 reporters working in newspapers and TV stations across the country to attend a nationwide training program to learn about such topics as the Marxist view on journalism.
In the program that started in mid-October and will run through the end of this year, attendees are instructed to reject the ideas of democracy and human rights as “targeting China’s Communist Party” and also to criticize calls for freedom of the press and constitutional government.
However, there is no end to the number of cases of people involved with universities and mass media voicing discontent online with the “thought control.” Indeed, it appears to have backfired by resulting in a broadening of the intellectual class’ hatred of one-party rule.
As one media professional who graduated from one of the targeted universities mused, “There’s no point in using force to take back minds that have drifted apart.”