From propaganda to public relations: Evolutionary change in the Chinese government

Abstract

With recent institutional changes in China, the Chinese government at all levels seems to attach increasing importance to communicating with publics via public relations. How, then, has public relations been adopted as a governmental communication practice? This study attempts to address this issue through a survey of 68 Chinese government officials from three groups: one from Jiangsu Province, one from Henan Province, and one from the Federations for Women at both central and local governments. The respondents, mostly young and well educated, described their understanding, perception, and application of government public relations in their work within the context of recent transformations in public administration in China. The survey results show an evolutionary change: the Chinese government has moved slowly but surely away from propaganda to public relations. However, whilst these respondents tended to define government public relations as an ideal in terms of relationship building associated with the two‐way symmetric model, in practice, they often handled the media relations by following only the one‐way or asymmetric model.