A book that teaches dour Communist officials how to abandon old-fashioned propaganda diktats and embrace the techniques of modern spin doctors has become a bestseller in China.
President Hu Jintao Photo: EPA
11:39AM GMT 15 Feb 2011
“The Art of Guiding Public Opinion” by Ren Xianliang has now gone into its
fifth edition since being published last April, with some government offices
placing orders for 50 to 100 books.
Its publisher said it had sold four to five times as many copies as expected.
“Even though the media is run by the Party,” the book says, “you should not
lecture journalists [and] do not be hostile to journalists because they are
not your enemy, but your partner.”
Furthermore, the book advises officials to “remain calm” in the face of
“difficult, pain-inducing questions” and not to “fly into a rage”.
“Chinese journalists,” it says, “have basically the same goals as the government, so they do not normally maliciously challenge officials.
“When it comes to those edgy and thorny journalists, the really outstanding
ones, officials should be calm and friendly and try not to argue too much.”
Chinese officials should be modest, plain-spoken and transparent and should
never refuse to answer questions in public for fear of allowing rumours to
spread, the book says.
In addition, they should prepare thoroughly for interviews, gather information
on the journalist “such as his interview techniques and goals” and learn how
to “give out brilliant answers and think about the effects [they] want to
achieve.”
However, the book cautions, officials should avoid “some specific questions”
and try to talk more about “ideas that everyone has accepted” and less about
“controversial issues”.
Do not, the book warns, leak any secrets. “Officials should say: ‘Sorry, I
cannot talk about this issue as per the relevant regulations’,” the book
advises.
The author of the book, Mr Ren, was a journalist with Xinhua, the state news
agency, before becoming a relatively senior official in Shaanxi province.
Unfortunately, although his book notes that “most of the foreign journalists
who come to China are objective, impartial and friendly,” he declined to be
interviewed.
Zhao Zhenyu, a professor at the Journalism School of Huazhong University in
Wuhan, said the book was laudable, but doubted that government officials
would really take it all to heart. “The problem is that cadres fear
journalists and avoid them.” He said the university now runs classes to
“help cadres understand that journalism is different from propaganda”.
President Hu Jintao ordered propaganda officials just before the Beijing
Olympics in 2008 to refocus their efforts away from suppressing negative
news and towards spinning news that makes the leadership look good. But the
Chinese media has since been able to report more freely on major scandals
and disasters, China’s central Propaganda department maintains a strict
control over the system.
