• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / News China

Enforcing ‘Social Stability’ Through Censorship and Propaganda

11/30/2019Tang Feng |

Amid the US-China trade war, the Chinese regime manipulates public opinion and imposes restrictions on citizens to evade adverse effects on its totalitarian rule.

China’s control over public opinions under the trade war

by Tang Feng

The state-run media in mainland China provides little information on the disadvantageous impact on China’s economy and daily lives of citizens caused by the ongoing US-China trade war. Instead, the communist authorities spare no effort in preventing negative information on economic problems from influencing public opinion that may cause risks to its totalitarian rule.

Bitter Winter has obtained a document issued by a local government in central China that calls for coordinated efforts between state institutions to prevent the US-China economic conflict from “eliciting social stability problems.” The Public Security Bureau, State Security Bureau, Commercial Affairs Bureau, Foreign Affairs Office, and propaganda offices are mentioned as the key departments for this task. The document also demands to set up an emergency plan to deal with negative consequences should they arise.

As per the regulation, the institutions mentioned above should pay close attention to the companies that may suffer as a result of the trade war. Changes in public opinion and any upheavals caused by unemployment, fluctuations of commodity and stock prices, and other challenging situations should be immediately dealt with.

Additionally, to further propaganda efforts and persuade citizens to support the central government’s decisions and policies, the document demands institutions in charge of propaganda and cyberspace security to strengthen control over public opinion and block any information and remarks unfavorable to the regime. In particular, comments that may lead to mass protests should be investigated immediately, and persons involved punished.

In May, the municipal government of a city in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang ordered all institutions under its supervision to ensure that only pre-approved information on the US-China trade war is published in local media outlets. Primarily, reports previously published in the central state-run media should be made available, without changing their headlines, and no locally-collected information or news should be published. After each such publication, readers’ comments should be monitored.

Trade war-related social stability measures have also been introduced on university campuses, the central government ordering to intensify control over information against the government being exchanged between the teaching staff and students online or in class.

A student from a university in Beijing told Bitter Winter that using the US-China trade war as an excuse, the university demanded students to replace their Apple smartphones with the ones produced by Huawei – the company that is considered an important tool for China’s regime – or the school would not allow them to access the internet network on campus.

Lecturers from several universities were forced to cancel study and exchange trips to the United States because of the trade war. One of them revealed to Bitter Winter that although he and his colleagues had gone through all procedures for the trips, schools’ administrations withheld their documents, claiming that “Party members can’t go to the United States.” In reality, non-Party members are also prohibited from going to the US.

“University leaders said that such measures are enforced to prevent those going abroad from leaking state secrets,” another university teacher who was prohibited from going to the US explained. “This is allegedly a regulation from a central government-adopted document. From September to November, all CCP members, leaders and officials were ordered to study trade-war-related central government policies to learn how to ‘bear in mind the mission.’” She added, “Because of the severe situation caused by the trade war, governments on all levels and leaders of institutions are afraid to get into trouble. It’s unlikely that we will have another opportunity to go to the US in the future.”

Tagged With: Surveillance

bw-profile
Tang Feng

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • Grid System Used to Target “Illegal” Religion

    Grid System Used to Target “Illegal” Religion

  • Kazakhstan: Mass Arrests and Surveillance—With Some Help from China

    Kazakhstan: Mass Arrests and Surveillance—With Some Help from China

  • Falun Gong: Share an App with Friends, Go to Jail for 3 and a Half Years

    Falun Gong: Share an App with Friends, Go to Jail for 3 and a Half Years

  • Xinjiang: New Regulations Will Tighten Control in 2022

    Xinjiang: New Regulations Will Tighten Control in 2022

Keep Reading

  • Crackdown on Religious Content on the Internet Coming March 1, 2022
    Crackdown on Religious Content on the Internet Coming March 1, 2022

    After Xi Jinping lamented that social media and the web are used to proselytize for religion, which is forbideen, new draconian Measures have been enacted.

  • Huawei Has Technology to Recognize Uyghur Faces: The Evidence
    Huawei Has Technology to Recognize Uyghur Faces: The Evidence

    Chinese electronic giant tries to deny that it produces technology for Uyghur face recognition. But it’s all true, here are the proofs.

  • China Uses National Census to Investigate People of Faith
    China Uses National Census to Investigate People of Faith

    Enumerators of the 7th census are told to ascertain people’s religious status and notify the police about detected religious symbols and “suspicious” behavior.

  • Qianjia Village, Longmenfan Township: Inside the Orwellian World of a “Model Village” in China
    Qianjia Village, Longmenfan Township: Inside the Orwellian World of a “Model Village” in China

    The Jiangxi village won several national awards for having perfectly implemented the total-surveillance grid system—and eradicated “illegal” religion.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back by Gulfiye Y
  • Zhanargul Zhumatai: “Help Me, I Just Want to Leave China” by Ruth Ingram
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 1. The Aesthetic Mind by Massimo Introvigne
  • Stricter Rules on Private Tutoring Protect Ideology Rather than Parents by Wang Zhipeng
  • Japan Religious Donations Law. 4. The Return of Brainwashing by Massimo Introvigne
  • Hong Kong: Christian Scholar Peng Manyuan Released but Not Rehabilitated by Gladys Kwok
  • The Weaponization of the CCP’s “Zero COVID” Against Tibet by Marco Respinti
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 3. Art as Communication by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 4. Art and Illustration by Massimo Introvigne
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 5. Professionals vs. Amateurs by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

Instant Exclusive News
Instant Exclusive News

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

Follow us

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY