INDO-PACIFIC China Seeks New Methods to Control Information Space

OE Watch Commentary: According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, the Work Department and Cyberspace Administration of China recently held a meeting with prominent Netizens to improve cyber governance. China’s close monitoring of the internet is well known, but the meeting points to a rising coordination between administrative bodies, propaganda and China’s official organs of influence such as the United Front. While the United Front Work Department (UFWD) has become more famous for its role in external (CCP) influence abroad, its primary remit is domestic. The United Front refers to coordination of different social and political forces to achieve common goals. This is reflected in the United Front Work Department’s bureaus (see graphic), which are focused on influencing specific demographics: political (including the eight official political parties in China other than the CCP that, according to China’s constitution are led by the CCP), religious, ethnic, and social classes. Part of this group is specific outreach to intellectuals at home and abroad to gain support for the CCP’s policies. The UFWD’s chief, You Quan [尤权], gave remarks at the meeting. You has extensive experience in cross-Strait issues due to his previous roles as Party Secretary of Province (situated opposite the strait from Taiwan). You Quan in 2014. You’s remarks at the meeting reference the “Four Consciousnesses” [ ], part of ’s Source: UNIDO via Wikimedia, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ 四个意识 commons/a/a6/You_Quan_in_2014.jpg, CC BY 2.0 political ideology that means enhancing political consciousness (loyalty to the Party), overall situation consciousness (awareness of and implementation of the Party’s orders), core consciousness (acknowledgement of Xi Jinping’s role as “core” of the Party) and alignment consciousness (personal consistency with and the Party). Also mentioned were the “four self- confidences,” 四个自信[ ] another part of “Xi Jinping thought” related to promotion of a Chinese view of governance, usually described as “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The other major organization present at the meeting was the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which plays a key role in regulating online content, shutting down vulgar or politically sensitive content. The Cyberspace Administration head who made a report at the meeting, Zhuang Rongwen [庄荣文], notably has an additional role as deputy in the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (中宣部; also known as the Propaganda Department). Zhuang, who was appointed to his cyberspace role in 2018, also serves a secretary of the CCP’s Central Committee Secretariat, an important position in the CCP’s bureaucracy. While his remarks are not reported, an article published on 25 November in “People’s Forum” 《人民论坛》featured Zhuang’s comments that while the Internet is the “new infrastructure of the information age” and “‘artery’ of economic and social development”, it is a “double- edged sword” and that “cyber ideological security is directly related to national political security.” Zhuang called for the establishment of a more effective internet management system. Buried under the ideological rhetoric in You’s remarks at the meeting and Zhuang’s article is an acknowledgement that the Chinese government needs to more proactively control the information space, both in direct management and through engagement with Netizens, presumably “influencers” in particular. This can already be seen in the notable uptick in the number of Chinese foreign ministry and other officials engaging with western intellectuals and the general public on Twitter and other platforms in recent months. Other indicators of the more proactive approach of the Chinese government in the information domain include revisions to the professional code of ethics for journalists that includes language emphasizing that journalists “need to safeguard the country’s political and cultural security as well as social stability.” As the Chinese government attempts to adapt to developments in internet news media and social activity, this engagement with prominent Netizens and tighter control of journalists’ activities will become an important new method of control. End OE Watch Commentary (Wood)

“It is necessary to strengthen the building of network representatives, support them to play an active role in guiding public opinion, strive to unite them around the party, and consolidate wisdom and strength for the realization of the Chinese nation’s great revival of the .”

OE Watch | January 2020 39 INDO-PACIFIC Continued: China Seeks New Methods to Control Information Space

Source: “中央统战部、中央网信办在京召开网络人士统战工作会 尤权出席并讲话 (The Central United Front Department, Cyberspace Administration of China in Held a United Front Work Meeting with Netizens, Yu Quan Attended and Gave Remarks),” Xinhua, 28 November 2019. www.cac.gov.cn/2019-11/28/c_1576475103703888.htm

The Central United Front Department and the Cyberspace Administration of China held a United Front work conference with Netizens on the 28th of November. Secretary of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee Secretariat, Deputy Minister of the Central Publicity Department, and Director of the Cyberspace Administration of China Zhuang Rongwen made a report. You Quan pointed out that the CCP Central Committee, with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core, attaches great importance to the work of Netizens as part of the United Front and fully affirms the important role of Netizens. We should take General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important ideas on strengthening and improving the work of the United Front as our guide and use good Netizens to guide them to support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system, and effectively strengthen the “ four consciousness” and the “ four self- confidences” and achieve the “two maintains”. It is necessary to strengthen the building of network representatives, support them to play an active role in guiding public opinion, strive to unite them around the party, and consolidate wisdom and strength for the realization of the Chinese nation’s great revival of the Chinese dream. Attendees included Party Committee and United Front Department members from Provincial, Municipal and sub-provincial cities, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps as well as officials from relevant departments of the Cyberspace Administration of China and Central and State organizations.

Alexander Bowe, ”United Front Work Department Organization,”. Source: U.S.-China Economic and Secuirty Review Commission, August 24, 2018, https://www. uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/China’s%20Overseas%20United%20Front%20Work%20-%20 Background%20and%20Implications%20for%20US_final_0.pdf, Public Domain

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