By Kashish Khanna and Grace Reback - Lab Undergraduate Affiliates
Under the current Chinese President, Xi Jinping, China has risen from a developing country to an economic powerhouse. Although the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has implemented several economic and social reforms, President Xi also emphasizes strengthening China’s image, both domestically and internationally. He has done so, in part, by glorifying the idea of the “China Dream,” which is a vision adopted by the Chinese public that sees China as a wealthy and developed country that takes the lead in global affairs and whose state ideology appeals to the world. The ultimate goal of the CCP now is to become a powerhouse that has a global influence. To do this China is using state media as well as domestic and global social media sites to increase the push of disinformation, the deliberate posting of false information to influence public opinion. Leaders in Beijing have decided to target areas that they believe are essential to giving the CCP and China the image of a unified and globally powerful nation. The effects of which can be seen in the events and news surrounding Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Chinese government’s effort to spread propaganda and disinformation focuses on several main priorities. They include pushing against any perceived threats to territorial integrity, promoting the China Dream, and persuading Chinese who studied overseas in western countries to return to China. Many of these priorities make the people of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora communities in North America targets of disinformation. China’s own citizens are also targeted and are an equally important audience of the government’s propaganda and disinformation.
China’s disinformation strategy is run by several government actors including the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the State Council and its Taiwan Office, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD). These actors all have different roles varying from posting fake news or sensationalist news about Hong Kong protests and the current Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, to encouraging- sometimes threatening- Chinese celebrities to use their social media platforms to share support of the CCP. Over the past few years, Beijing has encouraged government officials of all levels to open accounts on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube to promote China’s rise. Moreover, “wolf warrior”, diplomats who tweet confrontationally and spread fake news, are also encouraged. Besides western social media platforms, many of China’s own state-run media including the Communist Party’s People’s Daily, national broadcaster CCTV, and the Global Times all push the China Dream. China’s own social media platforms also play a critical role. Sites like Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, and WeChat, China’s main messaging platform, have internal censorship that scans for sensitive news and quickly deletes them off posts or group chats. The site also promotes news with “positive energy.” A reform to Weibo in 2018, changed its search engine to show crafted articles by the CCP with positive messages to be first in search results. While Chinese social media sites work to shed China in a positive light, they have also played a critical role in spreading posts that criticize other western countries.
On the island of Hong Kong, political and social unrest has been mounting. Up till 1997, Hong Kong was a British colony, and then it returned to China under a “one country, two systems,” arrangement. Under the arrangement, Hong Kong would have its separate judiciary system, basically providing it with some autonomy, while ultimately being a part of China. In June of 2019, a bill was introduced that allowed for the extradition from Hong Kong to China. This led to a series of protests led by students and city leaders. The protesters were met by aggressive strategies employed by the Chinese government. Chinese retaliation to these protests has been under constant scrutiny due to its violent and disruptive nature, globally as well. Although the bill has since been revoked, this increased support for a greater democracy. However, this has led to an increase in disinformation surrounding the narrative of the protests. China has employed multiple different techniques to control what is being said regarding the protests; a key ingredient being its internet firewall.
“The Great Firewall,” a name given to the increased amount of internet censorship, has been used by China to control the narrative surrounding the events, since 1998. Because many sites, such as Google, are blocked in China, Chinese citizens have to rely on news networks controlled by the CCP to obtain their news. Channels such as these have been known to spread disinformation on the Hong Kong protests, often painting them as violent. The CCP has also been attempting to push the agenda that foreign entities, such as the United States, played a part in the protests.
Disinformation as a means of spreading the CCP’s China Dream is extremely common. The Atlantic Councildiscusses some methods used by the CCP. These include, but are not limited to, posting YouTube videos from government accounts containing false information, creating burner accounts to spread support for the actions of the CCP, and cultivating support through Chinese celebrity social media accounts. The Atlantic Council also points out how China incorporated the use of pop culture trends to claim that the US played a role in the Hong Kong Protests, such as rap songs. Social media also plays a role in controlling what information is presented regarding Hong Kong to the mainland. Government agents have made fake accounts, called “sockpuppet” accounts, to take on different identities. These include posing as an average Hong Kong student and using that to claim that the protests are manipulated by foreign nations.
The Atlantic Council also discusses how China has also employed the use of the “50-cent army.” This is a group of people paid minimally who post on social media and forums, advocating for the CCP and its goals. Along with this method, China also encourages students studying abroad to display their public appreciation for the CCP and demonstrate support for the severe measures against the protesters in Hong Kong.
Under Xi, Taiwan plays a clear role in the “China Dream”. One of the explicit goals of the CCP is to politically absorb Taiwan under the banner of “reunification”. Taiwan’s successful democracy threatens the CCP’s narrative that democratic politics are incompatible with mainland China’s Confucian culture and provides an example of a democratic model that can produce stability and prosperity for other Asian countries. The CCP uses disinformation as one of the ways to control information and shape narratives. China’s disinformation goals in Taiwan are to divide and demoralize Taiwan society by spreading a negative and incompetent impression of the government of President Tsai. The disinformation gives the impression that the government of Taiwan and its military as weak, corrupt, and incapable of defending itself against the People’s Liberation Army. It suggests that Taiwan’s future is bleak and generally sends the message that democracy is ineffective. China conveys two types of images of the People’s Republic of China to Taiwan on social media. Some posts seek to reassure supporters in Taiwan that China is non-threatening by showing China in a positive light as a country where Taiwanese businesses can succeed and where Taiwan could rejoin peacefully. Other posts depict the inevitable unification with China.
Taiwan is an important area for Beijing’s propaganda and disinformation efforts. So much so that some analystssay that it also has the purpose of being a testing ground for new tactics in interfering in Taiwan's elections. If these efforts are successful they could be used later in elections in the US and other countries. The November 2018 local elections were subjected to a countless number of disinformation campaigns. Many favored a Beijing-friendly agenda, while others attempted to undermine Taiwan’s democratic integrity. Some posts attacked democratically elected politicians whose positions did not align with China’s interests. During this time the Taiwanese government and social media platforms were caught off guard by the amount of disinformation, the issues targeted, and the impact it had on politics. The tactics from this election would later be used in the 2020 elections.
Disinformation during the 2020 elections in Taiwan came from a variety of sources such as content farms, social media campaigns, influencer campaigns, and defamation campaigns. Disinformation spread at this time includes numerous personal rumors against President Tsai and false claims about the Democratic Progress Party’s (DPP) political activities. During the election, disinformation targeted Taiwan's voting process and its Central Election Commission. Allegations of voter fraud were spread on social media. Disinformation continued to spread during the post-election period as well. Posts delegitimizing the re-elected President Tsai and the DPP were spread. There was even a coordinated campaign that falsely alleged Tsai’s dissertation was fake and that called on the US government to investigate. While not all activities of disinformation from the 2018 and 2020 elections can be directly traced back to China- some may have originated domestically- they show the clear role disinformation plays in Taiwan’s politics.
In its goal to achieve Xi’s China Dream, the CCP has faced many issues from places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the US. The CCP has chosen to combat these issues with the spread of disinformation. Over time, China has been able to create a structured manner of using disinformation that is so calculated it is often hard to separate the truth from the propaganda.