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141 The State Council Information Office/External Propaganda Leading Group The State Council Information Office/External Propaganda Leading Group is the nerve center and leading organ in the sprawling system of China’s international propaganda (A345) work. It maps out the entirety of China’s overseas “publicity” work, assigns different bureaucratic entities with specific tasks, fixes budgets for entities in this system, and convenes yearly meetings to implement the annual external propaganda plan (ASI kl). The SCIO is commonly known in Chinese both as the Guo Xin Ban (#i#7s) and Wai Xuan Ban (External Propaganda Office, 47»). The reason for the two names is because it straddles two bureaucratic systems—the party and the state. It is formally under the State Council, but it is also overseen by the Chinese Communist Party’s External Propaganda Leading Group (or EPLG). This bureaucratic duality is what the Chinese describe as “one organ, two signboards” (—M/LFa IRIE), a reference to the white placards that hang outside the gates of all Chinese institutions (in this case giving the appearance of two different institutions, but in reality with only one inside). As such, the SCIO is the administrative office for the EPLG, playing a coordinating role in the media area similar to that performed by the Central Foreign Affairs Office (CFAO, #2547) for the Foreign Affairs Commission (PRABBAS). NOTES 1 This body was upgraded from Leading Small Group status in March 2018. 2 These plans are normally classified and only circulated within the Chinese bureaucracies, but occasionally they find their way into the public domain. See, for example, State Council Information Office. “Summary of China’s External Propaganda Work in 2013” [PEWS (Ff 20134F aR]. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Journalism Institute (ed.). China Journalism Yearbook [FE HAS 2014]. Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe. 2014. 63-66. 3 See Bowe, Alexander. “China’s Overseas United Front Work: Background and Implications for the United States.” US-China Economic & Security Review Commission. August 24, 2018; Kynge, James, et al. “Inside China’s Secret ‘Magic Weapon’ for Worldwide Influence.” Financial Times. 26 Oct. 2017, http://www.ft.com /content/fb2b3934-b004-11e7-beba-5521c713abf4.; Brady, Anne-Marie. “Magic Weapons: China’s Political Influence Activities under Xi Jinping.” Wilson Center Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. September 18, 2017. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/magic-weapons-chinas-political-influence -activities-under-xi-jinping. Appendix 1 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020600