China Media Project looks at episodes in the history of the PRC that are not being glorified in the propaganda blitz leading up to National Day:
Media in China may view the National Day celebrations as a golden opportunity to cash in and enhance their commercial reach and influence. But China’s leadership views this event as an internal affair of paramount political importance, and as a key strategic front along which to tighten news controls.
It was way back last spring that China’s Central Propaganda Department conveyed its overall position on reporting of the 60th anniversary: “Shout throughout the whole of society the main themes of the goodness of the CCP, the goodness of socialism, the goodness of opening and reform, the goodness of our great motherland, and the goodness of our various ethnic groups.”
These five points, which are referred to as the “five goods,” essentially define the permissible scope of 60th anniversary coverage.
