Subtle Propaganda – Michael D. Manning

From The Opposite End of China blog:

Propaganda gets a bad rap in the West. But hey, what is a “puff” or “local interest” story other than non-governmental propaganda? Is anything that portrays government actions in a positive light propaganda? When soldiers help to rebuild a village mosque after an earthquake and the story is covered on CNN, that’s news. But if the soldiers are from the PLA and the story’s on CCTV, it’s propaganda. Of course, the tone is different and a whole host of other factors come into play (not the least of which is the target audience).

In any case, that rambling and incoherent view of propaganda was only a trick to lure you into an excellent example that ran in today’s China Daily about Uygur imam and CPPCC member, Abdulatip Abdurahim:

“It’s very good news that our government is stressing harmony in society, but actually harmony was what Islam called for more than 1,400 years ago,” Abudlatip, a CPPCC member of the religion circle, said. [Full Text]