Noting that China has undergone tremendous social change in its three decades under the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology, this paper contends that such change has triggered tension that upsets the equilibrium of the entire social system. The paper uses Talcott Parson's cybernetic communication model to explain the societal level changes that have occurred in contemporary China, and then applies this model to the process of mass communication in that country and traces the manner in which higher order value orientations are transmitted into more specific lower order attitudes and regulations in the general spheres of pattern maintenance and tension management. The cybernetic model proposed in the paper implies that the changing roles of mass media will repeat themselves every time there is a major change in the Chinese social system and that China will continue to draw upon some of its formerly established social values. The paper suggests that it takes time for any country to accept a new culture and that mass communication plays several important parts in the ultimate acceptance of that culture. (Author/FL)