Keith Perron of PCJ Media writes: “As you may or may not know March 5th was the start of the annual National People’s Congress in China. At a meeting Sunday night with the head of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China which is headed by Li Changchun. This department is directly controlled by the Politburo Standing Committee have called the cuts at the BBC World Service and the proposed cuts to the Voice of America as a victory for “the Communist Party of China and the fight against the West”, in a speech to members of his department.
“In the unpublicised speech he said with the Western media outlets losing the media war, it will give China a chance to dominate the international airwaves. Li Changchun also announced that China will spend 52,000,000 Yuan (US$8 million) starting this year to expand its reach to international audiences. This includes satellite broadcasts, “taking over AM/FM stations in the west”, and expanding China’s use of shortwave to the Americas, Europe, Africa and South East Asia. China will also be looking at taking over relay stations once used to broadcast to the PRC by the West “who have misinformed the people of China to create an unstable society”.
“A proposal by the Politburo Standing Committee will be submitted to the high level officials of the Communist Party of China on March 8th to combine CCTV 4 and 9 (international) and China Radio International into one, to “take over the airwaves of the imperialist aggressors of stations like the BBC and the Voice of America”.
“This information comes to me from a source I cannot name to protect their identity as they work in the documents office at Zhongnanhai, the main headquarters of the CPC. I got this information this morning March 7th.”
(PJC/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)