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 “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.
Recently, the ninth session of the 2009 SCIO Internet News Work Training Session just finished in Beijing. All participants are top editors and managers of major news websites in China. The trainers include:
* Li Wufeng, Bureau Chief of the State Council Information Office Internet Affairs Bureau
* Peng Bo, Deputy Chief of the State Council Information Office Internet Affairs Bureau
* Professor Zhu Feng, Peking University School of International Relations
* Song Fufan, Director of the Ideology and Political Education Teaching and Research Section of the Marxist Theory Research Department at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China
* Zhai Huisheng, Party Secretary of the All China Federation of Working Journalists
* Professor Gao Gang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Renmin University School of Journalism and Communication
* Xia Chenghua, Deputy Chief of the Central Government Stability Preservation Leading Group Office
* Zhou Xisheng, Deputy Chief of Xinhua News Agency, Director-General of Xinhua News Agency
Soon after the training finished, one of the participants released her notes from this session online. CDT has translated the entire collection of notes from this 2009 SCIO Internet News Work training session; in total there are eight articles, which we will publish consecutively in coming days. CDT would like to thank the translator, who wishes to remain anonymous. Read the previous installments of notes. What follows is the seventh installment:
Xia Chenghua, Deputy Chief of the Central Government Stability Preservation Leading Group Office*
A. Introduction to the Central Government Social Stability Preservation Office. The Central Government Social Stability Preservation Office is an organ within the Communist Party Central Committee that conducts discussions and provides coordination.
B. The current state of social stability: Our nation is still engaged in a long term struggle with hostile forces in the West which seek to break apart and westernize China. Domestically, our country is still in a critical stage of its reforms.
C. Currently, our country’s main internal contradictions (conflicts) are:
i. Mass incidents caused by changes in businesses.
ii. Problems with ex-members of the armed forces. The central government requests: they must be well taken care of, every effort must be made to resolve their difficulties, and it is necessary to prevent them from being used by hostile forces.
iii. Irregularly petitioning for redress. It is the right of citizens to petition higher levels of government; however, using irregular means of petitioning for redress influences social stability.
iv. Large scale mass incidents caused by demolitions and the taking of rural land.
v. Large scale mass incidents caused by serious criminal activity. For example, multi-level marketing schemes and illegal fundraising.
D. The challenges to social stability brought by the widespread use of the internet.* See here. This office is referred to hereinafter as the “Stability Preservation Office.”
《当前维稳形式及对网上宣传的要求》
中央维稳办副主任夏诚华
一、对中央维稳办的介绍，中央维稳办是中央的议事协调机构。
二、我国当前社会稳定的形式。我国仍长期面对西方敌对势力对我国的分化和西化的斗争。从国内来看，我国正处在改革的攻坚阶段。
三、我国目前主要的人民内部矛盾：
1、因企业改制引发的群体性事件
2、部队退役人员问题。中央要求：要善待他们，要千方百计解决他们的困难，要防止敌对势力利用他们。
3、非正常上访。越级上访也是公民的权利，但是采取非正常手段的上访就会对社会稳定造成影响。
4、因房屋拆迁、农村征地引发的大规模群体性事件。
5、涉重刑犯罪引发的大规模群体性事件。如传销和非法集资等。
四、互联网的广泛应用对维护稳定提出挑战。
[To be continued]
