State Council Information Office

The State Council Information Office (SCIO) is the chief information office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China and an external name of the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

State Council Information Office

国务院新闻办公室
Headquarters
Information office overview
Formed	April 8, 1980 (1980-04-08)
Jurisdiction	Government of China
Status	External name of the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party Administrative office of the State Council
Headquarters	Beijing Telegraph Building, 11 West Chang’an Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing 39°55′53″N 116°25′37″E
Director responsible	Mo Gaoyi
Child Information office	China Internet Information Center
Website	english.scio.gov.cn
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	国务院新闻办公室
Traditional Chinese	國務院新聞辦公室
Literal meaning	State Council News Office
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guówùyuàn Xīnwén Bàngōngshì

Historically, SCIO was the external name of the Office of External Propaganda (OEP) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under an arrangement termed "one institution with two names." In 2014, OEP was absorbed into the Central Propaganda Department, turning SCIO into an external nameplate.

History

Further information: Propaganda in China, Chinese information operations and information warfare, and Internet censorship in China

The SCIO was formed in 1991 when the CCP Central Committee decided that the External Propaganda Leading Group (中央对外宣传小组) of the CCP Central Committee should have the name of State Council Information Office externally.^[1][2][3] The External Propaganda Leading Group was transformed into the Office of External Propaganda (OEP, 中央对外宣传办公室), officially called in English as the International Communications Office.^[4] The office was created with the goal of improving the Chinese government's international image following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.^[2] According to scholar Anne-Marie Brady, the SCIO became a separate unit from the CCP Central Propaganda Department but still connected to it and was the "public face of this new direction in foreign propaganda work."^[2]

In May 2014, the OEP was formally abolished, with its functions absorbed into the CCP's Central Propaganda Department. The SCIO turned into an external nameplate for the Propaganda Department, used primarily for activities of one of its bureaus.^[4] In September 2018, the Press Conference Hall of the SCIO from 225 Chaoyangmennei Street, Dongcheng District to the Beijing Telegraph Building in 11 West Chang’an Avenue, Xicheng District.^[5]

Structure

Before its absorption to the Propaganda Department, the OEP had nine functional bureaus, with corresponding ones in the SCIO, as well as supervised organs. It oversaw the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, while its seventh bureau oversaw the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), a front group established in 1993 dealing with human rights-related narratives towards China.^[4]

The SCIO oversees the China Internet Information Center.^[6] The SCIO formerly had responsibility for internet censorship in China, with its Internet Affairs Bureau overseeing internet censorship and the suppression of "disruptive" activity on the web in mainland China.^[7][8] In May 2011, the SCIO transferred the offices, namely its fifth and ninth bureaus, which regulated the internet to a new subordinate agency, the State Internet Information Office (SIIO).^[9] In May 2014, with the abolishment of the OEP, the SIIO (renamed in English as the Cyberspace Administration of China) was absorbed into the newly established Central Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Informatization.^[4]

Since the 2014 merger SCIO's nine bureaus are now controlled by the Central Propaganda Department, sometimes used by the department's bureaus as external nameplates.^[4]

List of directors

Every SCIO director except Zhao Qizheng have also served as deputy heads of the Central Propaganda Department.^[4]

Name	Chinese name	Took office	Left office	Ref.
Zhu Muzhi	朱穆之	1991	November 1992
Zeng Jianhui	曾建徽	November 1992	April 1998
Zhao Qizheng	趙啟正	April 1998	6 August 2005
Cai Wu	蔡武	6 August 2005	30 March 2008
Wang Chen	王晨	30 March 2008	26 April 2013
Cai Mingzhao	蔡名照	26 April 2013	9 January 2015
Jiang Jianguo	蒋建国	9 January 2015	25 July 2018
Xu Lin	徐麟	21 August 2018	9 June 2022
Sun Yeli	孙业礼	17 January 2023	11 April 2024	[10]
Mo Gaoyi	莫高义	11 April 2024	Incumbent	[11]

See also

• China International Communications Group
• International communication center