The appointment was made following a March shake-up to Beijing's regulatory structure, which gave the Communist Party a tighter grip over China's media.


Veteran Propaganda Department bureaucrat Wang Xiaohui has been named the head of China's newly restructured Film Bureau.


Previously a semi-independent government agency, the Film Bureau was integrated under the Propaganda Department, also known as the Publicity Department, in a wide-ranging government shake-up in March. The changes were viewed as giving the Communist Party of China a tighter grip over media and entertainment in the Middle Kingdom.


A career bureaucrat, Wang joined the Propaganda Department in 1986 and became its deputy director in 2009. In 2010, he took on the additional role of department spokesman. China's National Business Daily describes Wang as 55 years old, originally from Jilin Province and a master's degree holder in law.


The National Press and Publication Administration and the State Administration of Radio and TV — the bodies responsible for the regulation of print media and television, respectively — were brought under the control of the Propaganda Department during the same shake-up in March. Parallel appointments also were made at those bodies on Thursday. Fan Weiping was named deputy director of the State Administration of Radio and TV, and Zhuang Rongwen was appointed director of the National Press and Publication Administration.


Describing the remit of the reorganized regulatory apparatus, China's Government Network said: “After adjustments, the main duties of the Central Propaganda Department in film management are to manage film administrative affairs; supervise film production, distribution, and screening; organize review of film content; guide the coordination of major national film activities; and assume external cooperation."