Propaganda in the People's Republic of China refers to the PRC's use of messages designed to influence public opinion.********The history of communist propaganda in China predates the establishment of the PRC, and it has since manifested itself in various forms, such as songs, paintings, posters, and films. Propaganda produced by the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has been disseminated through state-controlled print and electronic media, and the CPC has made prolific use of the Internet as a means of distributing propaganda to both Chinese citizens and foreigners in the modern age. China Central Television has traditionally served as a major national conduit for televised propaganda, while the People's Daily newspaper has served as a medium for print propaganda.********** Political scientists believe that propaganda in the PRC is being utilized by the CPC to nurture the development of Chinese nationalism and of loyalty to the PRC, the CPC, and the Beijing government in general. Many also believe that the PRC government, having embarked on a program of capitalist-style economic reform and modernization in the late 1970s, is keen to use propaganda to portray the CPC as a nationalistic and patriotic party, rather than simply as a party that builds socialism or implements Marxism-Leninism in China, since these have largely been abandoned in practice and thus can no longer serve as effective bases for loyalty to the regime. Common themes in the new nationalistic propaganda of the PRC include the lionizing of the CPC's People's Liberation Army and its individual soldiers for their exploits and sacrifices during the 1937-1945 Second Sino-Japanese War and the allegedly seamless unity of the nation's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups. *************In previous decades, PRC propaganda was crucial to the formation and promotion of the cult of personality centered around Chairman Mao Zedong. It also served as a useful tool for mobilizing popular participation in national campaigns such as the 1958 Great Leap Forward and the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Following the death of Mao in 1976, propaganda was used to blacken the character of the notorious Gang of Four, which was seen as responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Past propaganda also encouraged the Chinese people to emulate selfless model workers and soldiers such as the famous Comrade Lei Feng, suicidal Chinese Civil War hero Dong Cunrui, self-sacrificing Korean War hero Yang Gensi, and Dr. Norman Bethune, a Canadian doctor who assisted the Communist Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It also praised Third World revolutionaries and close foreign allies such as Albania and North Korea while vilifying both the United States "imperialists" and the Soviet "revisionists" (the latter of whom was seen as having betrayed Marxism-Leninism). During the era of economic reform and modernization that was initiated by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, propaganda promoting "socialism with Chinese characteristics" was distributed. The later reign of President Jiang Zemin saw the creation of propaganda demonizing Falun Gong as a cult and promoting his "Three Represents" theory.*******************While in the Western world the word propaganda bears negative connotations, the Chinese word "xuanchuan" (Chinese characters: ??), which is liberally translated as propaganda, actually means to broadcast or to spread (information), with no negative connotations that would imply bias or untruthfulness. This explains why many English speakers would consider the use of such a term as an outright acknowledgment of the biased nature of Chinese propaganda, although the term can in fact be used in politically neutral contexts. For example, Chinese "propaganda" has also served to raise public awareness about the law, the need for common courtesy, the importance of embracing science and technology, the need to take preventive measures against SARS and AIDS.************