Li Changchun
Propaganda Czar Li Changchun has a day-job in stifling debate. Coming from the Jiang Zemin school, that would have been an easy job, but if we can believe this report in the Washington Post, Li has been regularly at odds with his current boss, Hu Jintao.The latest problem occurred when Li wanted to ban the July issue of the academic magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu, because it carried an articles saying that the power monopoly of the Communist Party lays at the root of many of China's current problems:
Although Hu has generally shown a restrictive attitude toward free speech, he counseled tolerance this time, the report said, advising Li that it is healthier to have such debate out in the open than to let it ferment under the surface. The magazine remains on the stands.More at the Washington Post.
The incident was only the latest in a string of setbacks for Li and China's propaganda bureaucracy. An explosion of negative news -- tainted food exports, slave labor at brick kilns, political challenges and even supposed cardboard dumplings -- has pained party censors and renewed demands for ideological and political discipline among China's journalists.
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