CHANGING MEDIA, CHANGING CHINA Edited by Susan L. Shirk OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 20II But the implications of these changes have also, like Lord Ye's dragon, caused alarm and consternation among leaders who strongly believe that controlling the public agenda is critical to maintaining social stability and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) hold on power. While actively encouraging the media to operate on market principles instead of relying on government subsidies, the CCP resists a redefinition of the role of media, which it still regards first and foremost as promoters of the party's agenda. 2 Since the fllassacre of demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in 1989, "guid­ ance of public opinion," the most common euphemism for agenda control, has been the centerpiece of propaganda work! Nevertheless, media com­ China's Emerging Public Sphere: mercialization, developing norms of journalistic professionalism, and the growth of new media are combining to erode the CCP's monopoly over the The Impact of Media public agenda and to open a limited public sphere. The resulting tension between control and commercialization has Commercialization, altered the relationship between the CCP and the media, prompting the CCP to adopt new control tactics to uphold its influence on news and pro­ Professionalism, and the Internet paga nda. Despite the fact that the CCP continues to punish editors who step over the line and the media remain formally a part of the party-state in an Era of Transition apparatus, China's leaders are beginning to treat the media and Internet as Qian Gang and David Bandurski rhe voice of the public and to respond to it accordingly. In other words, the CCP seeks a power-maximizing balance between censorship and propa­ ganda on the one hand and responsiveness on the other. Journalists in turn are developing their own tactics to gain audiences and challenge censors. This chapter proceeds as follows: the first section discusses the nature and history of the commercialization of Chinese print media, in particular newspapers. The second section goes on to raise the question of an emerg­ N CHINA THERE IS an old saying about Lord Ye, who professes to love ing credibility gap between party and commercial papers. Evidence sug­ dragons but runs for dear life when finally confronted with one. !h~ gests that consumers view commercial newspapers as more credible than I parable is a fair characterization of the deep ambivalence that ~hma s their party competitors. Third, we address the development of a profes­ leaders now feel toward the increasingly freewheeling commeroal and sional journalistic ethos and the struggle between the journalistic commu­ Internet media. Since the I99os China's leaders have encouraged the com­ nity and the state over how that ethos is defined. The fourth part addresses mercialization of the country's media: in 1998, China's media industry earn­ the expansion of the Internet and the growth of Web-based media and their ings totaled RMB 12 6 billion (USD 16 billion), ' and by wos, that figur~ had t'ffects on news coverage. In the fifth section, the prior sections are brought nearly tripled to RMB 320 billion (US D 40-5 billionf China also ~as ac~rve.ly together to argue that commercialization, emerging professionalism, and supported the development of Internet infrastructure t~ keep smde wrth rts the growth of Web-based media are all shifting agenda-setting power from global competitors, spending USD r38 billion in the five years t~ 30 J~ne the party-state apparatus to the media. Last, we conclude with an assess­ , and it had 8 million Internet users by 31 December 2009, wcludmg 2005 3 4 ment of the transitioning relationship between the media and the party­ 346 million broadband users.' state apparatus. China's Emerging Public Sphere 39 GO FORTH AND COMMERCIALIZE The strategic global dimension of media strengthening became much more apparent in 2009, with news of massive government investment to enhance The process of media commercialization that brought the CCP to its pres­ the global presence of core party media, and China's organization of the ent amalgam of control and change began in the I98os but was accelerated ostensibly nongovernmental World Media Summit, which was financed by by the intensification of economic reforms in the mid-I99os. As trade and the CCP and held in the Great Hall of the People.7 foreign investment grew, and as China sought to enter the World Trade In the mid-I99os, fresh media offerings sprang up all over China. News­ Organization, the prospect of competition from foreign media loomed. But papers such as Southern Weekend, a commercial spin-off of Guangdong because the CCP still regarded the media as promoters of party ideology Provin'Ce's official Nanfong Daily, and a myriad of metro newspapers (com­ and social guidance, change came more gradually than in the economic sec­ mercially oriented daily tabloids or broadsheets) spiced up official news tor. Nevertheless, during the I98os a few foreign media groups did in fact with consumer-relevant lifestyle, entertainment, and sports coverage. strike up joint ventures-in areas that were deemed politically safe, such as Investigative news programs like China Central Television's Focus came computers and fashion. International Data Group led with China Computer­ into being, offering a fresh approach to news and analysis. Naturally, polit­ world magazine, set up in I98o in coordination with a business arm of China's ical support was an indispensable component of their initial success and IT industry regulator, the Ministry of Information Industry. In I988 the continued operation. Southern Weekend was able to weather several political Chinese-language edition of the fashion magazine Elle followed suit. storms with officials in Beijing because it had support from provincial lead­ A much bolder attempt by an overseas media investor to gain a foothold ers in Guangdong. The television program Focus, which routinely shed in the Chinese market came in August I992, when Hong Kong businessman light on such social and political problems as administrative corruption, Yu Pinhai signed a joint venture deal with Guangzhou's Xiandai Renbao. was supported by the country's top propaganda official, Ding Guangen, While the contract yielded complete editorial control to the Chinese part­ who actually had a role in its creation. ner, Yu's company exercised its influence through Lie Fu, who managed the Commercialization meant a radical reconfiguration of the relation­ operations side. He introduced editorial methods and compensation sys­ ships between media and audiences, the tight grip of the propaganda tems in line with the global newspaper industry, put a system of totally apparatus notwithstanding. No longer were readers purely targets of CCP computerized copy flow in place, and employed modern management tech­ messages. The era of choice had arrived. Initially, the changes went for­ niques. The highly competitive Xiandai Renbao caused concern among ward in much the same way as they had at large state-owned enterprises­ Guangzhou's three top newspapers, Nanfong Daily, Yangcheng Evening News, through experimental ventures. Generally, this meant party media or and Guangzhou Daily.5 Although an important first for ove rseas participation government offices used an existing publishing license to launch a com­ in the highly sensitive area of news, Yu Pinhai's newspaper venture was mercial media spin-off8 nevertheless doomed. Guangdong leaders shut down Xiandai Renbao on I The new commercial newspapers drew massive audiences. By mid­ January I995· decade, Wuhan's Chutian Metropolis Daily had a circulation of over I mil­ Although early foreign competitors found themselves unable to gain lion or approximately I2 percent of the city's population.9 In the late I 9os, 9 footholds in China's media market, the threat of competition mobilized the as more commercial newspapers came onto the market, their growth con­ media to move toward self-sufficiency. The big picture was about China's trasted sharply with circulation declines for official party newspapers. place in what the CCP still regards as a global information struggle. In the While reliable figures are somewhat problematic in China because inde­ CCP's view, media strengthening-asset restructuring, changes in modes of pendent circulation audits are rare, we can get a fairly dear picture of the operation, and the creation of engaging media products to foster domestic shift to commercial papers by looking at official figures for average daily competition-is necessary for China to "face competition by international print runs at party and commercial newspapers (figure 2.I). In the ten 6 media groups and face the global struggle for public opinion." Domestic years from I993 to 2oo3, Betjing Daily, the official mouthpiece of municipal competition continues to be regarded as an urgent matter of national strength. leaders in the capital, went from an average daily print run of 523,ooo 40 Chatrgitrg Media, Cha1tging Chiua China ".r Emergi11g Public Sphere 41 Average Daily Print Runs, Beijing had been substantially reduced by the end of the 199os, so in 1999 the news­ Daily and Beijing Youth Daily, 1993-2003 wire capitalized on one of its licenses to launch China Newsweekly, a news­ 70 • magazine that takes its cues from Time magazine and is now one of China's I ' I '• market leaders. 12 = 60 I = I ~'iii' I But commercial ventures were not exclusive to media that had been .... ~ ..... a... 50 I . c.. I cut loose from government subsidies. As media commercialization gripped ~ 8 ~ I 40 ,• the country, there was money to be made by everyone. Even People's Daily, i'~ / the offi<!ial organ of the CCP's Central Committee, jumped on the com­ Q~ 30 / 0 / / mercial bandwagon with the May 2oor launch of Jinghua Times, a metro ~0 .