After updating this news article into English, here is the rewritten version:
In recent months, a “major earthquake” has shaken the political scene in Tangshan, Hebei Province, China, with 11 senior provincial officials falling from grace. Among them, Li Li, the head of the Propaganda Department of the Tangshan City Committee, becomes the fourth consecutive Propaganda Department head of the city to be investigated, drawing attention to the corruption within the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda machinery.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China announced late on August 16th, based on information from the Hebei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, that Cao Quanmin, a first-level inspector in Tangshan, Hebei Province, was under investigation.
Public records show that Cao Quanmin, born in October 1964 in Tangshan, Hebei Province, served as the Deputy Mayor of Tangshan City in February 2011, and later also served as the Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Harbor Economic Development Zone in December 2016, before becoming a first-level inspector in Tangshan.
The political landscape in Tangshan has been constantly turbulent recently. According to mainland Chinese media reports, all 11 fallen provincial-level officials announced by Hebei authorities since April 5 this year have ties to Tangshan. They include Li Jianzhong, Vice Mayor of Tangshan City; Li Guifu, Deputy Director of the Tangshan Municipal People’s Congress and Secretary of the Qianxi County Committee; Guo Yanhong, former Director of the Tangshan Municipal People’s Congress; Yang Jie, Director of the Tangshan Municipal People’s Congress; Sun Gui, former Secretary of the Party Committee of Tangshan Normal College; Hao Zhijun, Deputy Mayor of Tangshan City; Hou Xu, member of the Tangshan Municipal Committee and Secretary of the Caofeidian District Committee; Han Guoqiang, Deputy Director of the Hebei Development and Reform Commission (previously served as Mayor and Secretary of the Qian’an City under Tangshan), and He Chunjun, Executive Deputy Director of the United Front Work Department of the Hebei Provincial Committee (previously served as Deputy Mayor of Tangshan, among other positions).
On August 11, Li Li, a member of the Tangshan City Committee and head of the Propaganda Department, was investigated. According to Voice of America reports, against the backdrop of the earthquake in the Tangshan political scene, Li Li’s downfall has become a major focus.
According to Chinese Communist media reports, with Li Li’s investigation, four consecutive heads of the Propaganda Department of the Tangshan City Committee have fallen. Li Li’s predecessor, Yang Jie, served as a member of the Standing Committee of the City Committee and head of the Propaganda Department for 7 years; Yang Jie’s predecessor, Yu Shan, was a member of the Standing Committee of the City Committee and head of the Propaganda Department for 3 years; and Guo Yanhong, Yu Shan’s predecessor, held the position for 5 years.
The fall of officials in the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda system is not uncommon. At the central level, Lu Wei, a former Deputy Minister of the State Council Information Office who fell from grace in November 2017, and Zhang Jianchun, a Deputy Minister of the Central Propaganda Department who was investigated in June this year, are examples. At the local level, propaganda officials of various levels like Zhang Yuansong, a member of the Huaihua City Committee in Hunan Province and head of the Propaganda Department, and Wang Dongxia, a member of the Ningling County Committee, head of the Propaganda Department, and Deputy County Chief, have also faced similar fates.
Ding Qiang, a Chinese political observer residing in New Zealand, told the Voice of America that corruption, debauchery, and embezzlement within the propaganda department are not surprising. This is mainly due to the enormous power wielded by the propaganda department, responsible for justifying the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party’s power and the correctness of its governance, which spans newspapers, television, movies, radio, textbooks, and culture, among other areas. With the monopoly on public power and the ambiguous assessment criteria for propaganda work, the potential for corruption is significant.
In collusion with businesses, the propaganda department develops various means of revenue extraction. For instance, the controversial “Strong Country Transportation” app that erupted last year claimed to be the first national-level transportation platform in China, encompassing functions such as ride-hailing, freight transportation, water transport, and air transport.
According to official media disclosures, “Strong Country Transportation” is a digital stereoscopic transportation application service platform jointly created by the “Study Strong Country” learning platform and “relevant departments.” The “Study Strong Country” platform, viewed as a political symbol of Xi Jinping, was launched by the Central Propaganda Department on New Year’s Day in 2019, promoting Xi Jinping’s ideology and achievements and mandating installation for learning Xi’s thoughts in every corner of the country, making it a top-level ideological tool of the Chinese Communist Party for revenue generation and brainwashing.
Before going abroad, Ding Qiang worked in a state-owned enterprise, and many of his classmates currently hold positions in the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda departments. He stated, “Including the grand external propaganda of the Communist Party, there are many tricks in the middle – officials take kickbacks layer by layer, ultimately deceiving the Chinese people.”
Cai Xia, a former professor at the Central Party School now in exile in the United States, once revealed that the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party has always strived to carve out a share for themselves using their power, tapping into some of society’s funds. Each department within the CCP has its own way of bringing in money, with ideology being one of the avenues for revenue for the Propaganda Department.
Lai Rongwei, Executive Director of the Taiwan Inspirational Association and Assistant Professor at Longhua University of Science and Technology, pointed out that the downfall of officials in the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda system, seemingly rooted in anti-corruption efforts, may also be due to Xi Jinping’s perception that some within the propaganda system are politically opposing him. As a result, employing anti-corruption measures to bring down individuals who do not cooperate with his policies or challenge his authority.