The following examples of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Central Propaganda Department
May 1, 2011
From the Central Propaganda Department: In the coming days media at all levels, including Internet media, must strengthen their public opinion leadership efforts related to important issues involving agriculture.
中宣部：各级媒体，包括网络媒体在近期内必须加强涉农热点方面的舆论引导工作。
State Council Information Office: Exposing Internet Surveillance Abroad
April 30, 2011
From the State Council Information Office: All websites are requested to continue effectively organizing positive on-line guidance related to the development and surveillance of the Internet. Regarding the related special topic, “Exposing Internet Management Abroad,” during the May Day period all websites are requested to continue implementing the requirements by prominently placing this topic on website front pages. When placing copy related to this topic in special areas, websites must accord with the demands of the notice and place it in important and prominent positions on front pages.
国新办：“透视国外互联网管理”
国新办：请各网站继续组织好有关互联网发展和管理情况的网上正面引导。有关“透视国外互联网管理”专题，请各大网站”五一”期间继续落实相关要求在首页突出摆放，相关稿件在放入专题的同时，也必须按照通知要求放在首页显要突出位置。
Central Propaganda Department: Scientific Development, Transformative Methods
April 30, 2011
From the Central Propaganda Department: In the coming days all media, including Internet media, must assiduously prepare propaganda on the topic “scientific development, transformative methods.”
中宣部：科学发展，转变方式
中宣部：各级媒体，包括网络媒体在近期内必须认真安排好“科学发展，转变方式”主题宣传。
State Council Information Office: Ten Crimes Endured by the People of China
April 29, 2011
From the State Council Information Office: All websites, and particularly interactive spaces, are requested to immediately delete the article, “Ten Crimes Endured by the People of China.”
Attached: Ten Crimes Endured by the People of China
Chinese people…
1) read the most expensive books in the world
2) receive the most expensive healthcare in the world
3) live in the most expensive housing in the world
4) eat the most poisonous food in the world
5) work the longest hours in the world
6) pay the most taxes in the world
7) enjoy the least amount of political rights in the world
8) support the most bureaucrats in the world
9) endure the heaviest oppression in the world
10) be given the strangest ways of dying in the world
国新办：中国百姓受十项罪
国新办：请各网站特别是互动环节尽快删除“中国百姓受十项罪”一文。
附：中国百姓受十项罪
1、读世界上最贵的书。
2、看世界上最贵的病。
3、住世界上最贵的房。
4、吃世界上最毒的食品。
5、干世界上最长的工时。
6、交世界上最多的税。
7、享世界上最少的权利。
8、养世界上最多的官。
9、受世界上最重的剥削。
10、领世界上最离奇的死法。
State Council Information Office: “Bold Service as an Underground Pioneer”
April 29, 2011
From the State Council Information Office: All websites are to strengthen on-line leadership and surveillance. In a prominent position on the headline news area of your front pages, please repost the article “Bold Service as an Underground Pioneer,” and leave it up until 8:00 pm.
国新办：勇当地下开路先锋
国新办：各网站加强网上导向管理。请在双首页要闻区突出转发《勇当地下开路先锋》，保留至20时。
Central Propaganda Department: Advance the Model Worker
April 29, 2011
From the Central Propaganda Department: Media at all levels, including Internet media, are requested to set in place key propaganda work related to pushing forward the achievements of model workers.
中宣部：先进劳动模范
中宣部：请各级媒体，包括网络媒体安排好先进劳动模范事迹的重点宣传工作。
State Council Information Office: Cry From Sichuan (in the style of Du Fu)
April 29, 2011
From the State Council Information Office: All websites, particularly interactive spaces, are requested to immediately delete the poem Cry From Sichuan (Shu zhong yin) (in the style of Du Fu).
国新办：请各网站特别是互动环节尽快删除《蜀中吟》(仿杜甫)一诗。
State Council Information Office: Apple Mobile Phone
April 28, 2011
From the State Council Information Office: All websites are requested to repost the article “Apple’s Google Maps Locator Function Incites Controversy Among Mobile Phone Users” in a prominent position on front pages and in the headline news areas on the front pages of opinion and commentary sections. Please keep the article up until 6 pm April 29, 2011.
国新办：苹果手机
国新办：请所有网站在网站首页及评论频道首页要闻区突出位置转发《苹果谷歌“定位”手机用户惹争议》一文，保留至29日下午6时。
Central Propaganda Department: Food Safety
April 27, 2011
From the Central Propaganda Department: In the coming days all levels of media, including Internet media, must advance reporting and public opinion leadership on the problem of food safety.
中宣部：食品安全
中宣部：各级媒体，包括网络媒体在近期内必须进一步做好食品安全问题的报道和舆论引导。
In China, several political bodies are in charge of Internet content control. At the highest level, there is the Central Propaganda Department, which ensures that media and cultural content follows the official line as mandated by the CCP. Then there is the State Council Information Office (SCIO), which has established an “Internet Affairs Bureau” to oversee all Websites that publish news, including the official sites of news organizations as well as independent sites that post news content.
This “Internet Affairs Bureau,” sends out very specific instructions to all large news websites daily, and often multiple times per day. Those instructions do not always mean that related contents are completely banned online, but they instruct websites to highlight or suppress certain type of opinions or information in a very detailed manner.
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions, as well as other type of censorship orders to media and websites, as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” The Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue, in Newspeak) is one of the four ministries that govern Oceania in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the Chinese blogosphere, it is the online nickname for the Central Propaganda Department and generally speaking, all other subordinate propaganda agencies including Internet supervision departments.
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