Times of India China's Communist Party plans cultural change second time in history _Saibal Dasgupta_ (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Saibal-Dasgupta.cms) Saibal Dasgupta, TNN | Oct 18, 2011 BEIJING: The Communist love for propaganda surfaced during a conclave that decided to strengthen the Chinese media. It also took the long expected decision of holding the next _Communist Party_ (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Communist-Party) congress in the second half of 2012. The party congress is expected to formally decide on a successor to Hu Jintao as the party general secretary and the country's president.
The five-day conclave ended on Tuesday with the party announcing it has decided to undertake "cultural reform" as a means to enhance the capabilities of state-run publishers, broadcasters and art performers. Culture has deep political connotation in a country, which witnessed havoc during the cultural revolution of the Mao era. The official media said the meeting adopted a set of "cultural guidelines". No details of the guidelines were released. But it is bound to be seen as the second major move in the Communist Party's history to use culture as a political tool. "China's _cultural industry_ (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/cultural-industry) will play a more critical part in the country's economic and social development," an official statement said. "Culture is emerging as an important part of the country's comprehensive competitiveness in today's world," it said. The official media said the country faced problems of "cultural security" and there was a need to address the issue. The official media did not discuss if crucial issues concerning media censorship and the increasingly political role played by a section of Internet users and micro bloggers was discussed at the meeting. The official media released very few details of the meeting and it was not clear if vice president _Xi Jinping_ (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Xi-Jinping) , widely regarded as the person likely to replace Hu as next president, played an important role during the proceedings. The next party congress is also expected to choose vice _premier_ (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/premier-ltd/stocks/companyid-13258.cms) Li Kiqiang as the successor of premier _Wen Jiabao_ (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Wen-Jiabao) . But the official media remained silent over succession issues. The 2012 party congress will take place in a "crucial period" of China's efforts at "deepening of reform and opening up, and the transformation of the pattern of economic development," the official Xinhua news agency said discussing the meeting attended by over 370 senior party officials charged with the task of approving board decisions on the direction of government policy. The _Chinese government_ (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Chinese-government) has invested heavily on the technological development of the state-run media and helped them expand their reach to several foreign countries without allowing private sector entry in the media. Media controls continue to remain in China despite the heavy investments in media. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
