Recently, Xinhua News Agency’s senior personnel have been adjusted.
On June 7, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced that Fu Hua, who had served as the editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency for a year, was changed to the president of Xinhua News Agency. And Lu Yansong, who served as the vice minister of the Central Propaganda Department for more than half a year and experienced the bombing of the CCP’s embassy in the Yugoslavia, succeeded Fu Hua as the editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency.
Both Fu Hua and Lu Yansong have long served in the CCP’s official media. Fu Hua was the editor-in-chief of Economic Daily, and Lv Yansong was the deputy editor-in-chief of People’s Daily. In recent years, the two have similar career trajectories, and they have successively served as the propaganda minister of the provincial party committee, the deputy minister of the Central Propaganda Department, and the editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency. Fu Hua was the propaganda minister of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and Lv Yansong was the propaganda minister of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee.
According to the public resume, 58-year-old Fu Hua is from Rudong, Jiangsu. He graduated from Renmin University of China with a major in the history of the Communist Party of China, with an on-the-job postgraduate degree and a doctorate in law.
Fu Hua has worked in the propaganda system in Beijing for many years. In 2007, he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Beijing Xicheng District Committee, head of the propaganda department, president of the party school, secretary and vice chairman of the party group of the District Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and secretary of the party group of the District Federation of Social Sciences.
In 2010, he served as the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, and was transferred to the deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Municipal Committee the following year (at the bureau level). In April 2014, Fu Hua became the president of Beijing Daily, the chairman of the Social Affairs Committee of Beijing Daily Newspaper Group, and the vice chairman of the Communist Party of China Journalists Association two years later.
Lv Yansong, who was promoted to the editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, is 55 years old and a native of Heilongjiang. After graduating from Peking University, he joined the People’s Daily and worked in the People’s Daily. He has been engaged in international news reports for a long time and served as a correspondent in Russia. In February 1998, when the Kosovo crisis broke out, he was the first Chinese journalist to be chartered to go to the field and served as the chief correspondent of the Yugoslav correspondent station of the People’s Daily.
Recently, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is approaching, and the personnel of the CCP’s cultural and propaganda system, known as “the pen”, have undergone frequent changes.
According to the Chinese Communist Party’s official media on June 6, Li Shulei, a close associate of Xi Jinping, has made a public appearance as the deputy minister of the Central Propaganda Department in charge of daily work.
Li Shulei, 58, is a native of Henan. He was admitted to the Department of Library Science of Peking University at the age of 14, obtained a master’s degree in contemporary literature from the Department of Chinese at Peking University at the age of 21, and received a doctorate at the age of 24. He is known as the “Peking University Prodigy”.
According to Lu media reports, Li Shulei and Xi Jinping have an unusual relationship, having known each other before Xi became the top leader of the CCP. After the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping was newly appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and served as the president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee. In 2008, Li Shulei was promoted to vice president. It is said that some of Xi Jinping’s speeches in the party were written by him.
The Propaganda Department of the Central Committee is the ideological center of the CCP. The current head of the Propaganda Department is concurrently held by Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau. Huang Kunming is from Fujian. Shortly after Xi Jinping was transferred to the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Secretary in 2007, Huang Kunming was promoted to the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and the Minister of the Propaganda Department. In 2013 In October, Xi Jinping had been in power for less than a year, and Huang Kunming was promoted to the Central Propaganda Department, paving the way for taking over as minister in four years. Because Huang Kunming had long-term experience working with Xi Jinping in Fujian and Zhejiang, he was regarded as a member of Xi’s army. Retired at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This transfer of Li Shulei means that the Central Propaganda Department will continue to be run by Xi’s cronies.
The CCP’s power black box operation, the official media has become a weather vane to observe high-level trends
One of the evidence of a June 7 Wall Street Journal report that Li Keqiang’s focus on economic issues was tacitly approved by Xi Jinping was the change in state media coverage.
The CCP state media, which is tightly controlled by Xi Jinping and his subordinates, has long focused on Xi Jinping, but recently it has also mentioned Li Keqiang’s economic agenda, indicating that it recognizes both the goals of epidemic prevention and economic development.
The role of the CCP’s state media also seems to be used to create political momentum. For example, Xinhua News Agency has launched 50 short video clips about Xi Jinping’s “footprints” since May 23, introducing Xi Jinping’s actions over the past 40 years.
In addition, because the CCP’s power is operated in a black box, changes on the front pages of the CCP’s official media are often valued by the outside world, serving as a weather vane for observing changes in the CCP’s internal power struggles.
For example, a report on the Deutsche Welle Chinese website on May 20 entitled “Jinping’s absence from the front page of official media cited speculation that the Hong Kong University research has found other findings” stated that recently, speculations about political changes at the top of the CCP have been rampant, and one of them The reason is that the number of mentions of Xi Jinping on the front page of the People’s Daily has decreased.
According to the report, the China Media Research Project of the University of Hong Kong counted the number of times Xi Jinping was absent from the front page of the People’s Daily over the years and found that the number of Xi Jinping’s absences did not change significantly compared with previous years.
However, David Bandurski, director of the China Media Research Program, believes that “Xi’s absence from the front page of the People’s Daily more than five times in a given month would be unusual, especially as the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China approaches this fall. .”
Recently, there are rumors that Xi Jinping is under pressure from the CCP because of the “dynamic clearing” of the epidemic prevention policy, which has affected the economy.
However, on May 19, the People’s Daily published four reports related to Xi Jinping on the front page, and attached photos of Xi Jinping’s emphasis on China’s continued expansion of opening up at the meeting the day before.
In this regard, Ban Zhiyuan pointed out, “Chinese observers are right to pay close attention to the visual signals conveyed by the People’s Daily, but these signals are often numerous and confusing.”