The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman’s “War Wolf” diplomacy has repeatedly exposed itself as a scandal. (Video screenshot)
As the “war wolf diplomacy” continues to make a fool of itself internationally, the Chinese Communist Party authorities have recently stepped up their propaganda efforts, not only by increasing the number of central and local press spokespersons, but also by upgrading the hierarchy of press spokespersons in the hope of “seizing the right to speak” and “gaining dominance. The Chinese authorities have recently stepped up their propaganda efforts, not only increasing the number of central and local spokespersons, but also raising the level of spokespersons, hoping to “seize the right to speak” and “win the dominant power. However, critics believe that the CCP’s practice of using spokespersons as a propaganda platform is only empty talk in the information age where there are many channels of access to information to guide the direction of public opinion.
The Information Office of the State Council of the Communist Party of China recently announced the list of central and local press spokespersons in 2021, of which 161 are from central departments and 101 are from localities, for a total of 262. Compared with 2020, the number of spokespersons has increased by 14.
According to the Voice of America, this year’s list of spokespersons has not only increased in number, but also “upgraded” the administrative level of some important departments’ spokespersons for the first Time. The Ministry of Propaganda (with the State Council Information Office), for example, has added Xu Lin, vice minister of the Ministry of Propaganda and director of the State Council Information Office, as one of the few new officials at the full ministerial level.
The upgrade of the spokesperson lineup at the State Council Information Office is seen as a sign that the Communist Party will strengthen its control over press work. On Oct. 30 last year, at the first press conference after the CPC Central Committee established a press release system, Xu Lin said that the establishment of a press release system for the CPC Central Committee was to “adhere to and strengthen the overall leadership of the Party.
Wang Chen, the current vice chairman of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), emphasized in his past role as vice minister of the Propaganda Department and director of the State Information Office that the establishment of a party spokesperson system “is conducive to grasping the right to speak and winning the dominant power in public opinion communication, and creating a favorable public opinion environment for the Party’s construction and national development.
In an interview with the Voice of America, Li Datong, former editor-in-chief of the “Freezing Point” section of the Beijing-based China Youth Daily, said that if the purpose of the press spokesperson is only to grasp the right to speak and win the dominant power, but not to face the real issues and speak the truth, then in today’s era of wide access to information, to guide the direction of public opinion, it can only be empty talk.
He said, “Do you think you will guide people if they don’t speak? There is no such thing. The real guidance is to convince you. The information you provide is objective and true, which can only lead. Who will believe you when you convey information that people find to be false after comparing it with real Life! What is the one thing you can dominate? Nothing can be dominated.”
Gao Yu, a senior media figure in Beijing, also believes that the people “will not believe your words”, which is a bloated institution that adds to the burden of the people and does nothing else.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) began to publish the list of spokespersons in 2004, and has been doing so for 17 years. The number of spokespersons has also increased from 75 when it was first announced to 262 this year.
Gao Yu said that the CPC’s spokesperson team is getting bigger and higher in rank, which actually complements the CPC’s big foreign propaganda. “It’s the CCP’s way of strengthening public opinion control and actually controlling the whole of China’s opening up to the outside world.”
The CCP has also held several spokesperson forums, and in 2018, at the 2018 China Spokesperson Forum, hosted by the State Information Office and organized by Peking University, Xu Lin, director of the State Information Office, said at the conference that he wanted to be “the teller of China’s story and the guide of the mainstream of communication “.
However, observers pointed out that the aggressive performance of the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the press conference, instead of “defending” the CPC well, attracted criticism from the outside world.
Gao Yu, a veteran media figure, said that the Chinese authorities’ claim of “telling a good Chinese story” is to cover up the truth with superficially beautiful words: “Look at the stories they tell, which one is true?”
Some observers have pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party authorities, including its press spokesmen, have been known to cover up the truth and spread false information. Take last year’s massive outbreak of CCP viruses (Wuhan virus and New Crown virus) as an example, the CCP authorities initially tried hard to cover up the fact that the virus was passed from person to person, which eventually led to a global pandemic.
Just this past Chinese New Year‘s Eve, chrysanthemums in Wuhan, the site of the outbreak, were “sold out”, which the official media in Wuhan claimed was “retaliatory consumption”. In fact, Wuhan people have the custom of “burning incense” on the first day of the New Year to offer condolences to friends and relatives who have died in the past year. Wuhan’s chrysanthemums, which are used to pay respects, are out of stock, raising questions again about the exact number of deaths in the Wuhan Epidemic.
Observers say that authorities at all levels of the Communist Party, both central and local, often tell lies rather than the truth, and report good news rather than bad. Even at press conferences during this epidemic, they have been evasive about the epidemic and have kept their mouths shut about the real death toll.
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