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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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State Council Information Office
The State Council Information Office (SCIO) is the chief information office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China and an external name of the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

Historically, SCIO was the external name of the Office of External Propaganda (OEP) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under an arrangement termed "one institution with two names." In 2014, OEP was absorbed into the Central Propaganda Department, turning SCIO into an external nameplate.

History

Further information: Propaganda in China, Chinese information operations and information warfare, and Internet censorship in China

The SCIO was formed in 1991 when the CCP Central Committee decided that the External Propaganda Leading Group (中央对外宣传小组) of the CCP Central Committee should have the name of State Council Information Office externally. The External Propaganda Leading Group was transformed into the Office of External Propaganda (OEP, 中央对外宣传办公室), officially called in English as the International Communications Office. The office was created with the goal of improving the Chinese government's international image following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. According to scholar Anne-Marie Brady, the SCIO became a separate unit from the CCP Central Propaganda Department but still connected to it and was the "public face of this new direction in foreign propaganda work."

In May 2014, the OEP was formally abolished, with its functions absorbed into the CCP's Central Propaganda Department. The SCIO turned into an external nameplate for the Propaganda Department, used primarily for activities of one of its bureaus. In September 2018, the Press Conference Hall of the SCIO from 225 Chaoyangmennei Street, Dongcheng District to the Beijing Telegraph Building in 11 West Chang’an Avenue, Xicheng District.

Structure

Before its absorption to the Propaganda Department, the OEP had nine functional bureaus, with corresponding ones in the SCIO, as well as supervised organs. It oversaw the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, while its seventh bureau oversaw the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), a front group established in 1993 dealing with human rights-related narratives towards China.

The SCIO oversees the China Internet Information Center. The SCIO formerly had responsibility for internet censorship in China, with its Internet Affairs Bureau overseeing internet censorship and the suppression of "disruptive" activity on the web in mainland China. In May 2011, the SCIO transferred the offices, namely its fifth and ninth bureaus, which regulated the internet to a new subordinate agency, the State Internet Information Office (SIIO). In May 2014, with the abolishment of the OEP, the SIIO (renamed in English as the Cyberspace Administration of China) was absorbed into the newly established Central Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Informatization.

Since the 2014 merger SCIO's nine bureaus are now controlled by the Central Propaganda Department, sometimes used by the department's bureaus as external nameplates.

List of directors

Every SCIO director except Zhao Qizheng have also served as deputy heads of the Central Propaganda Department.

Name Chinese name Took office Left office Ref.
Zhu Muzhi 朱穆之 1991 November 1992
Zeng Jianhui 曾建徽 November 1992 April 1998
Zhao Qizheng 趙啟正 April 1998 6 August 2005
Cai Wu 蔡武 6 August 2005 30 March 2008
Wang Chen 王晨 30 March 2008 26 April 2013
Cai Mingzhao 蔡名照 26 April 2013 9 January 2015
Jiang Jianguo 蒋建国 9 January 2015 25 July 2018
Xu Lin 徐麟 21 August 2018 9 June 2022
Sun Yeli 孙业礼 17 January 2023 11 April 2024
Mo Gaoyi 莫高义 11 April 2024 Incumbent

References

  1. ^ Brady, Anne-Marie (October 26, 2015). "China's Foreign Propaganda Machine". Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  2. ^ Brady, Anne-Marie (2008). Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 23, 156. ISBN 978-0-7425-4057-6. OCLC 968245349. Archived from the original on 2021-01-09. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  3. ^ Bandurski, David (February 17, 2023). "Co-Producing with the CCP". China Media Project. Archived from the original on February 20, 2023. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  4. ^ Lulu, Jichang; Jirouš, Filip; Lee, Rachel (2021-01-25). "Xi's centralisation of external propaganda: SCIO and the Central Propaganda Department" (PDF). Sinopsis. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-11-20. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  5. ^ "国新办新闻发布厅迁新址 首场发布会介绍乡村振兴战略规划" [The press conference hall of the State Council Information Office moved to a new location and the first press conference introduced the rural revitalization strategic plan.]. China News Service. 29 September 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  6. ^ Colville, Alex (2024-10-31). "Cloaking What China Says". China Media Project. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  7. ^ "China defends internet regulation". BBC News. 2006-01-15. Archived from the original on 2009-01-03. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
  8. ^ Ang, Audra (2009-01-23). "China closes 1,250 sites in online porn crackdown". Associated Press. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
  9. ^ Wines, Michael (May 4, 2011). "China Creates New Agency for Patrolling the Internet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 7, 2011. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
  10. ^ "State Council appoints officials". Xinhua News Agency. 17 January 2023. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  11. ^ "China's State Council appoints new officials". Xinhua News Agency. 11 April 2024. Archived from the original on 11 April 2024. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
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