Itai Muzondo
GWERU: In a recent report published by the Global Engagement Center (GEC) at the U.S. Department of State, the People’s Republic of China was identified as a threat to the global information ecosystem through its various misinformation campaigns.
The report notes that ‘propaganda, disinformation, and censorship’ have been often used as attempts to influence the international information environment.
“Unchecked, the PRC’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,” the report says.
Case studies to incidents where China attempted and, in some cases, notably intervened, and, or hijacked information spaces to their favor included China’s taking legal action to intimidate a French researcher critical of Huawei; China attempting to push a leading Israeli newspaper into retracting a story and TikTok owner seeking to block potential critics of Beijing from using its platforms among other highlighted attempts to manipulate information spaces.
“Beijing uses false or biased information to promote positive views of the PRC and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). At the same time, the PRC suppresses critical information that contradicts its desired narratives on issues such as Taiwan, its human rights practices, the South China Sea, its domestic economy, and international economic engagement.
“More broadly, the PRC seeks to cultivate and uphold a global incentive structure that encourages foreign governments, elites, journalists, and civil society to accept its preferred narratives and avoid criticizing its conduct,” part of the report reads.
The GEC also says through such actions, China has promoted digital authoritarianism’ which involves the use of digital infrastructure to repress freedom of expression, censor independent news, promote disinformation, and deny other human rights.
The supposed effects of such a move as outlined by GEC is that the information available to the public, media, civil society, academia, and governments as they engage with the PRC could be distorted by propaganda and disinformation and circumscribed by censorship.
“This would pose a direct challenge to all nations that seek to predicate their relations with the PRC on fact-based assessments of their sovereign interests. This future is not pre-ordained. Although backed by unprecedented resources, the PRC’s propaganda and censorship have, to date, yielded mixed results.
“When targeting democratic countries, Beijing has encountered major setbacks, often due to pushback from local media and civil society. Global understanding of PRC information manipulation is a starting point for a future in which the PRC’s ideas, values, and stories must compete on an even playing field,” further reads the report.
This comes as China is seeking to expand its influence in Africa, through implementing various projects with governments in the global south.
While other countries emulate China, the information system and media are likely to be more receptive to propaganda and disinformation.
The Global Engagement Center (GEC) is a U.S. Government’s dedicated center for countering foreign disinformation and propaganda with a mandate to recognize, understand, expose, and counter threats from state and non-state actors that engage in information manipulation.
