Alex Pevzner is the founding director of the Chinese Media Center, at the School of Media Studies of The College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS), Rishon LeZion, Israel. The Chinese Media Center is dedicated to connecting Israel and China in a systematic media dialogue and scholarly and professional exchanges. Pevzner was the founding director of The Israel Project’s China program, the first ever program of its kind aimed at providing Chinese reporters with facts and information about Israel. Before returning to Israel, Pevzner worked for over five years as a staff reporter of Dow Jones Newswires in Taiwan, covering the economy, financial markets, and cross-strait ties. Pevzner is also a consultant in the area of China and Chinese news media for Israeli companies and organizations. He regularly publishes on Israel-China ties in the leading Chinese news media publications and is often interviewed by Chinese state-owned outlets such as Xinhua News Agency and Guangming Daily. Pevzner also writes on the Chinese media in the Israeli press.

2. EARLY JOURNALISM/KMT ERA
 Missionaries establish
first newspapers in
China
 Dagong Bao 大公报
(L’Impartial) 1902,
Tianjin
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

3. EARLY JOURNALISM/KMT ERA -1
 Starting from 1927 the ruling Guomindang began to
exercise censorship. (Efforts continued inTaiwan by
limiting to 1.5 sheets and no new newspapers)
 Journalists could ignore propaganda directives before
1949/politically-unaffiliated periodicals (大公报, 新民报，
新闻天地，观察)
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

4. EARLY JOURNALISM/KMT ERA- 2
 CPC propaganda work before 1949
 History of the Party press - radical journals of the late
1910s and early 1920s/Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong
(eds.)
 “Today news has become a most important and
most effective propaganda method.” (Hu Qiaomu,
1946)
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

5. CPC ERA – TOTAL CONTROL - 1
“As long as class distinction still exists in the world,
the press will always be an instrument of class
struggle.” (Mao Zedong, 1957)
“A thousand newspapers with one face”
Media responsible for mass mobilization
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

6. CPC ERA – TOTAL CONTROL - 2
 The scope of propaganda oversight includes: “newspaper offices, radio
stations, television stations, publishing houses, magazines, and other
news and media departments; universities, middle schools, primary
schools, and other vocational education, specialized education, cadre
training, and other educational organs, musical groups, theatrical
groups, film production studios, film theaters, drama theatres, clubs,
and other cultural organs, literature and art troupes, and cultural
amusement parks; cultural palaces, libraries, remembrance halls,
exhibition halls, museums, and other cultural facilities and
commemoration exhibition facilities.” (Shambaugh/中国共产党建设大
字典)
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

7. THE REFORM ERA
 Transition from planned economy to market-base
economic development
 Government gradually reduces subsidies to media
outlets; competition over readership
 New outlets are born in broad experimentation in profit
making
 Commercialization but media remains “tongue and
throat” of the party (sensitive periods)
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

8. THE MEDIA MARKET TODAY
 “If a stateTV station
reports problems
here and there every
day, how can it be
called the tongue and
the throat of the
party?” (Remarks by
YangWeiguang,
then-President of
CCTV, in 1996)
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

9. THE MEDIA MARKET TODAY
 “As the saying goes, television today is like a double-
gendered rooster: propaganda departments want it to
crow while finance departments want it to lay eggs.”
 Over 2,000 newspapers; 130 million copies daily
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

10. THE MEDIA MARKET TODAY – cont.
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

11. THE MEDIA MARKET TODAY – cont.
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

12. Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,
CHINA’S MAIN BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS
cont.
 China Business News 第一财经日报 (est. 2004, circ. 250,000)
China’s Bloomberg, the CBN Group operates print and broadcast
business news services.The Group’s newspaper, China Business
News, is published Monday through Saturday. Many international
news media source information from the paper because it is fast
and authoritative.
 China Securities Journal中国证券报 (est. 1992, circ. 800,000)
Established by Xinhua News Agency, it is designated by the China
Securities Regulatory Commission, the China Banking Regulatory
Commission and China Insurance Regulatory Commission to
disclose information on listed companies, insurance companies and
trust companies. Positions itself as an investment adviser.

13. Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,
CHINA’S MAIN BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS
cont.
 Caijing 财经杂志 (est. 1998, circ. 225,000)
A bi-weekly magazine, used to be one of China’s leading
business publications, styled itself afterThe Economist.
 Caixin Media 财新传媒 (est. 2010, circ. 220,000 forCaixin
Century)
Beijing-based media group, Caixin Media publishes four
magazines, CenturyWeekly, China Reform, Comparative
Studies and Caixin - China Economics & Finance.

14. Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,
CHINA’S MAIN BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS
 21st Century Business Herald 21世纪经济报道 (est. 2001, circ.
632,000)
Member of the Nanfang Daily Group, five days a week, known for
its aggressive reporting and critical commentary, the first Mainland
financial paper in Hong Kong. Bureaus in NewYork, Los Angeles,
London, and Moscow.
 Economic Observer 经济观察报 (est. 2001, circ. 380,000)
A weekly published on Mondays, in-depth analysis, attractive
layout. focuses on economics, politics, and culture, appeals
to intellectuals.

15. INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA
 618 million Internet
users end-2013
(45.8% penetration
rate)
 500 million users of
weibo; vibrant social
media ecosystem
 Increasingly heavy
censorship over the
Internet (大V, 实名
制)
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

16. GROWTH IN NUMBER OF CHINESE
INTERNET USERS
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

17. CHINA ADVERTISING SPENDING
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

18. INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA-
cont.
 RiverCrab, Grass
Mud Horse,
Harmonized, 五毛党
 目田 (自由 freedom)，
景德镇,The Great
Chinese Firewall囧
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

19. – CONTROL VS RESISTANCE 1 –
Southern Weekly editorial incident
 May ‘12 deputy director
of XinhuaTuo Zhen (庹
震) named Guangdong
propaganda chief
 Original Southern
Weekly 2013 NewYear’s
greeting, “China’s
Dream, the Dream of
Constitutionalism,”
entirely rubbed away
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

20. – CONTROL VS RESISTANCE 1 –
Southern Weekly editorial incident
 The word “constitutionalism” had appeared 18 times in
the original version of the greeting
 Rare public protest over censorship (1,034 stories
censored one way or the other in 2012)
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

21. – CONTROL VS RESISTANCE 2 –
Wenzhou train crash
 July 23, 2011 high-
speed train crash
outsideWenzhou kills
40, injures 192
 Unusual outpour of
comments on weibo
causes authorities to
investigate
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

22. Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,
– CONTROL VS RESISTANCE 2 –
Wenzhou train crash
 Authorities issue news blackout order after a week of
online rage
 People’s Daily editorial “China does not need blood-
stained GDP”
 “My story will not go to print today and looks like I will
have to write something else. I’d rather leave the page
blank with one word — ‘speechless.’ ”

23. – CONTROL VS RESISTANCE 3 –
Nobel Prize for Liu Xiaobo
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

24. – CONTROL VS RESISTANCE 3 –
Nobel Prize for Liu Xiaobo
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

25. Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,
CHINA’S JOURNALISTS – PARTY HACK
VS. THE FREEDOM CRUSADER
 车马费／软文
 体制内／外
 The case of ChenYongzhou 陈永洲

26. NETANYAHU’S CHINA VISIT COVERAGE
 Netanyahu and Abbas
visit China
 Photos
 Xinhua vs CRI
 Central Party School
Alex Pevzner, Director, Chinese Media Center,

27. Thank you 谢谢
Alex Pevzner
alexp@alexpevzner.com