China’s government is engaged in a massive global campaign to promote its communist system and counter dissenting voices, according to a new U.S. government report.
After decades of promoting mainly positive narratives about China to world audiences through broadcasting and print media, the ruling Chinese Communist Party altered its approach under President Xi Jinping, according to the new survey released Thursday by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.
“When you look at the pieces of the puzzle and you put it all together, you see a breathtaking ambition on the part of the PRC to seek information dominance in key regions of the world,” Mr. Rubin said. The operations range from covert Chinese intelligence personnel planting false stories in foreign media to diplomats who pressure foreign media to promote the Chinese regime’s favored narratives. China also is buying foreign media outlets and using them for the operations.
The Long March was the famous campaign led by Mao Zedong in the 1930s that ultimately led to the Communists seizing power in 1949. United Front agents also work with the Chinese secret police in the Ministry of State Security. The ministry uses the front as “operational cover” in conducting influence operations, according to the State Department researchers.
The State Department inspector general last year gave the GEC a failing grade for its role in countering disinformation and propaganda, saying the center, which has a staff of 167 people and a $74 million budget, had failed to take the lead in government-wide information activities to expose foreign lies and deception,
“Beijing employs bots, trolls and coordinated campaigns among inauthentic social media accounts to boost pro-PRC content and suppress critical content,” the report said, noting the bots use a technique called “flooding” to manipulate search engine results and hashtag searches. U.S. officials have identified how Chinese authorities work with companies in China to identify and locate critics abroad who seek to work anonymously, the report said.
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