Bill Gertz
China’s government is engaged in a massive global campaign to promote its communist system and counter dissenting voices, according to a 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 has altered its approach under President Xi Jinping, according to the survey, released Thursday by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.
“Beijing has shifted to embracing the coordinated use of disinformation when it suits its purposes, often using inauthentic bot networks to amplify messaging,” the 58-page report concluded. It describes the operations as highly sophisticated media and government influence “underwritten by billions of dollars in investments.”
The report identifies multiple elements of Chinese government information manipulation and influence activities, including propaganda and censorship, the promotion of “digital authoritarianism” to control online content, and the infiltration and control of international organizations and bilateral relationships.
Jamie Rubin, director of the Global Engagement Center, told reporters that the report comprehensively examines how the People’s Republic of China attempts to distort the global information environment through its influence and disinformation activities.
“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.
China’s ultimate goal, he said, is to damage the security and stability of the United States and its allies.
Mr. Rubin, a former State Department spokesman, said the information age has produced a “dark side to globalization.” Foreign disinformation and manipulation efforts, unless halted, will slowly and steadily destroy democratic values and rights, he warned.
A Chinese Embassy spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Co-optation
According to the report, the Chinese also are using “co-optation” of former government officials, business people and journalists through bribery to promote false or biased narratives promoted by Beijing.
“Collectively, these elements erode the integrity of the information environment,” the report said.
Disinformation, used in the past as a supporting role in Beijing’s overall foreign policy, has become a central feature of Chinese influence operations. Examples are stories questioning the origin of the COVID-19 virus, criticism of the trilateral U.S.-U.K.-Australian accord on submarine construction, and support of Russia’s justifications for its invasion of Ukraine.
Major disinformation and influence operations defend Chinese policy toward Taiwan and counter what the State Department has called the policy of genocide against minority Uyghurs in western China.
Covert Chinese intelligence personnel have planted false stories in foreign media, and diplomats have pressured foreign media to promote the Chinese regime’s favored narratives. China is also buying foreign media outlets and using them for the operations.
The report warns that Beijing’s efforts are diminishing freedom of expression and manipulating international information outlets into becoming “tools” for Chinese propaganda.
Unless effectively countered, information in the future available to the general public, media, civil society, academia and governments will be distorted and based on false or misleading information from China, the report said.
“This future is not a foregone conclusion,” said the report, noting a growing global consensus for countering the Chinese influence campaign. “The stakes are high: If the PRC’s global narratives ultimately prevail, it will encounter less resistance to reshaping the international order to the detriment of individual liberties and national sovereignty around the world.”
New ‘Long March’
The report reveals that Mr. Xi’s government has launched a “new Long March” to battle what one Chinese Communist Party influencer, Yi Fan, claims are malicious lies in the West about China’s system and policies.
The Long March was the campaign led by Mao Zedong in the 1930s that ultimately led to the communists seizing power in 1949.
The report is the first official U.S. government publication to highlight the work of the ruling Communist Party’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), an overt and covert influence arm engaged in “transnational repression,” mainly against ethnic Chinese living outside China.
According to the report, United Front agents harass and coerce critics of Beijing under the direct control of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, a senior leadership organ.
Mr. Xi has expanded United Front activities, calling them critical for maintaining and increasing Chinese power. “Since coming to power in 2012, he has significantly increased funding for the UFWD and elevated central coordination of its efforts to shape the international environment — including the information domain — to Beijing’s advantage.”
United Front agents also work with the Chinese secret police in the Ministry of State Security. The ministry uses the front as “operational cover” to conduct influence operations, according to the State Department researchers.
The other main organ for the global manipulation campaign is the CCP Central Propaganda Department, said to be exporting domestic information controls to countries around the world.
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