Head of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department Liu Yunshan attends the closing session of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the Great Hall of the People on Nov. 14, 2012 in Beijing, China.
A former reporter in Inner Mongolia, Liu, 65, rose through the ranks of the Communist Youth League, the power base of outgoing president Hu, and will take over the standing committee’s propaganda portfolio. As director of the Communist Party’s propaganda department for the past decade, Liu saw that Chinese media remains closely restricted even as the growth of the Internet has seen an explosion in the means by which ordinary Chinese citizens access, spread and react to information.