The CCP Information Order in the Early People’s Republic of China: The Case of Xuanjiao Dongtai

Abstract

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) faced a major predicament. Since the new leadership did not allow free exchange of opinions, the problem was how to obtain reliable information. To deal with this dilemma, the CCP developed a two-pronged approach. Besides public news items that catered to the mobilizational aspects of party policies, it established secret feedback channels, the so-called neican 内参, or internal reference, bulletins. These were strictly tasked with separating facts from opinion to provide the leadership with an objective account of developments in China and abroad. Over time, a distinct system for the controlled circulation of intelligence, an “information order,” took shape. This article looks at one of the most important reference bulletins, Xuanjiao dongtai 宣教动态, edited by the Central Propaganda Department between 1953 and 1966, and traces changes in the bulletin’s international coverage over time.