China wants more sway over how the world thinks. The country’s latest five-year plan aims for a major leap in international influence. This often manifests on social media as cute videos of pandas or futuristic ones of high-speed trains. But China’s leaders see the broader effort as crucial. It is needed, official statements say, to counter Western biases so as to win the „battle for global public opinion” and „safeguard national interests”.
In principle, there is nothing wrong with China trying to expand its global influence. Many governments do. It can be uncomfortable for democrats to see the world’s biggest authoritarian regime winning fans: recent polls point to an uptick in support for China around the world. But these trends reflect disgruntlement with Donald Trump’s America as much as warm feelings towards the Chinese Communist Party.
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Where things become nasty is when the battle for opinion gets underhanded. Researchers have long documented Chinese influence operations, showing how state actors disguise their identities online. Take, for instance, the work by Graphika, a social-media analytics group, linking thousands of fake accounts on Facebook to Chinese disinformation about American decline.
