In a special report last week, the US Department of State alleged that China uses false or biased information to promote positive views of the country and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Report
In its Global Engagement Center Special Report: How the People’s Republic of China Seeks to Reshape the Global Information Environment, Washington accused Beijing of attempting “to influence the international information environment” using “a variety of deceptive and coercive methods.”
The report revealed that Beijing’s “information manipulation” spans the use of the following methods:
- Promoting digital authoritarianism,
- Leveraging propaganda and censorship,
- Exploiting international organisations and bilateral partnerships,
- Pairing cooptation and pressure, and
- Exercising control over Chinese-language media.
A US govt report on how China is seeking to reshape the global information environment details on "China Pakistan information corridor"; Points how Beijing sought to "gain significant control over Pakistani media" pic.twitter.com/vgqIflABWD
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) October 5, 2023
It went on to mention that China “spends billions of dollars annually” on such “foreign information manipulation efforts.” It further alleged that the superpower suppresses “critical information that contradicts its desired narratives” on crucial issues such as “Taiwan, its human rights practices, the South China Sea, its domestic economy, and international economic engagement.”
Notably, the report highlighted that China seeks to “cultivate and uphold a global incentive structure,” which “encourages foreign governments, elites, journalists, and civil society to accept its preferred narratives and avoid criticising its conduct.”
Washington’s Warning
To this end, Washington warned that if such behaviour were to go unchecked, China’s efforts “will reshape the global information landscape, creating biases and gaps that could even lead nations to make decisions that subordinate their economic and security interests to Beijing’s.”
Elaborating on the possible impact of such a disinformation crusade, the report said that China’s global information manipulation could “produce a sharp contraction of global freedom of expression,” as it would “play a significant — and often hidden — role in determining the print and digital content that audiences in developing countries consume.”
Access to the vast amount of global data, combined with constant developments in AI, will enable China to “surgically target foreign audiences and thereby perhaps influence economic and security decisions in its favour,” the report stated.