The propaganda department does not underestimate the gravity of its task in enforcing the official line. Nothing less than national security is at stake. ‘In China, the head of the Central Propaganda Department is like the Secretary of Defense in the United States and the Minister of Agriculture in the former Soviet Union,’ said Liu Zhongde, a deputy-director of the department for eight years from 1990. ‘The manner by which he brings leadership will affect whether the nation can maintain stability.’
