China’s government controls virtually all media outlets to exercise “mind control” and manipulate public opinion, according to testimony by a former state propagandist at a hearing of the U.S-China Economic Security Review Commission last week.

Qinglian He testified before the commission on China's “perception management."

China’s information control is carried out through controlling editors and reporters. All Chinese media, including newspapers, periodicals, news agencies, TV stations, broadcasting, the movie industry and art performances, are categorized and managed as “mouthpieces” of the ruling Communist Party.

“As part of China’s political institutions, information and mind control has been conducted for more than half century since the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949,” said He, a former Chinese government propagandist and now a senior researcher at Human Rights in China,.
"Mind control" includes “indoctrination from kindergarten to college through officially compiled textbooks, as all teachers are categorized as ‘educators of CCP.’”

These controls are exercised by the Party’s Central Department of Propaganda, she said.

The government disinformation themes include that the United States is a “key enemy of China,” that the U.S. intervenes and restrains China and backs independence forces in Taiwan and Tibet, she said.

Other disinformation themes include the notion that the U.S. is a world hegemonic power, fears a stronger China and therefore seeks to “contain” China.

“Economic reform and Opening Policy from 1979 have never shaken or changed mechanism of the control,” she said.

Information control is crucial to communist rule and has been used by Beijing to “to mislead Chinese population from values of human rights and democracy, and from truth as well,” she said.

The disinformation themes used by the government include that the United States is a “key enemy of China,” that the United States intervenes and restrains China, and backs independence forces in Taiwan and Tibet, she said.