Propaganda in the Republic of China has been an important tool since its inception with the 1911 Revolution. The term xuanchuan can have either a neutral connotation in official government contexts or a pejorative connotation in informal contexts. Some xuanchuan collocations usually refer to "propaganda", others to "publicity", and still others are ambiguous. It also was an important tool in legitimizing the Nationalist government that retreated from mainland China to Taiwan in 1949.

The Standard Chinese word xuanchuan "dissemination; propaganda; publicity" originally meant "to announce or convey information" during the 3rd-century Three Kingdoms period, and was chosen to translate Russian propagánda пропаганда in the 20th-century People's Republic of China, adopting the Leninist concept of a "transmission belt" for indoctrination and mass mobilization. Xuanchuan is the keyword for propaganda in China and propaganda in the Republic of China (Taiwan).