Every workplace in China has a propaganda unit. The central government now calls them "publicity" departments. NPR's Rob Gifford reports that Chinese President Jiang Zemin addressed provincial chiefs of these propaganda units last night. The speech seemed remarkably out of step with today's China, a country in which people generally are far more interested in making money than in politics. The President said Marxism still is his guiding philosophy and that he would work to educate the Chinese people about Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong. Yet, couched in the language of Communist ideology was an acknowledgement that what both China and the Communist Party need is economic development.
Copyright 2001 NPR