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is the top official with oversight of China's overseas propaganda (外宣) efforts, while
Politburo member and director of the CCP Propaganda Department Huang Kunming
oversees all media organs and has day-to-day oversight of the entire propaganda
system. Wang Yang, another PBSC member and the chairman of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has overall responsibility for
the United Front portfolio, although Sun Chunlan (the only female member of the
twenty-five-man Politburo and former director of the United Front Work Department
from 2014 to 2017) may also continue to have some residual responsibilities as well,
since her current portfolio includes education and culture. Additionally, You Quan, a
member of the Politburo Secretariat, is now the new head of the UFWD, and he is in
charge of the day-to-day work of the department. These leaders' views on particular
issues carry a great deal of weight and can often result in significant policy
initiatives or modifications.

Besides issuing brief policy directives via their comments on documents (known
as 批示), top leaders can also communicate their ideas or orders in conversations or
meetings with the ministers in charge of functional bureaucracies. Such ideas or orders
can lead to actions at the implementation level or to the formulation of a new policy or
the modifications of an existing policy.

Policy Coordination

The Foreign Affairs Commission, which used to be called the Foreign Affairs
Leading Small Group (est. 1956), is by far the most important. The role of the
Commission is similar to that of the interagency "principals committees" in the
US system. Its chairman is Xi Jinping, while Premier Li Keqiang and Vice President
Wang Qishan serve as vice chairmen. Other PBSC members Wang Huning and
Han Zheng are members. Le Yucheng, a vice minister of Foreign Affairs, is deputy
director. Other members of the Commission include the most senior leaders
of the Chinese government: Yang Jiechi, and the ministers of Foreign Affairs,
State Security, Defense, Public Security, Commerce, the CCP's International
Liaison Department, Taiwan Affairs Office, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office,
Propaganda Department, External Propaganda Office, and Overseas Chinese Affairs
Office.

The Commission also has an attached "office," known as the Central Foreign Affairs
Office (中央外办), which has a dedicated staff of approximately fifty (many of whom are
seconded from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Liaison Department of the

Appendix 1
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