Stability overrides everything : China's political publicity in the information age

Propaganda is a term inevitable to use when discussing political issues, especially in Chinese politics. Since the early establishment of the Communist Party of China, ‘propaganda’, or the phrase CPC chooses to use, which is ‘political publicity’, is considered, by Chinese government on all levels of society, to be an important and integral part of The Party’s efforts to revolutionise and develop Chinese society. With the establishment of the Political Publicity Department within the Central Committee of the CPC, the party established a complete set of theories and methods with regard to political publicity. That has then been improved and developed throughout the 90-year exploration and practice of communist policy in China. The contemporary information environment has helped in the evolvement of Chinese political publicity. By understanding and researching the development and current status of political publicity works in China, it is possible to get a rough idea of China’s political system, and thus improve understanding of the current state of the Chinese public opinion, and gain understanding of the political situation in the country. Based on the research in sociology and communication studies, it is, furthermore, essential to analyse China’s political publicity works in terms of evidence presented in its visual communication and in various media. The first chapter of this paper defines three stages of China’s political publicity from the perspective of visual communication. The second chapter analyses the two main methods in China’s contemporary political publicity; controlling public opinion, and education. The complexity of public opinion in China in the information age is, perhaps, self-evident to some, but in this paper the author attempts to analyse China’s contemporary political publicity works from the viewpoint of a visual communication designer, with the aim to help readers reach a better understanding of the topic