State Council Information Office

History

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 was moved 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.

References

References

1. Brady, Anne-Marie. (October 26, 2015). "China's Foreign Propaganda Machine".
2. Brady, Anne-Marie. (2008). "Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China". Rowman & Littlefield.
3. Bandurski, David. (February 17, 2023). "Co-Producing with the CCP". China Media Project.
4. Lulu, Jichang. (2021-01-25). "Xi's centralisation of external propaganda: SCIO and the Central Propaganda Department".
5. (29 September 2018). "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". [[China News Service]].
6. Colville, Alex. (2024-10-31). "Cloaking What China Says".
7. (2006-01-15). "China defends internet regulation". [[BBC News]].
8. Ang, Audra. (2009-01-23). "China closes 1,250 sites in online porn crackdown". [[Associated Press]].
9. Wines, Michael. (May 4, 2011). "China Creates New Agency for Patrolling the Internet". [[The New York Times]].
10. (17 January 2023). "State Council appoints officials". [[Xinhua News Agency]].
11. (11 April 2024). "China's State Council appoints new officials". [[Xinhua News Agency]].