China has barely scratched the surface of its potential to carry out a “people’s war” on global public opinion.
By Jianli Yang and Nick Monaco – Jan 28, 2022
2022 is bound to be a turbulent year for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as he deals with diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Winter Olympics, tries to keep the pandemic under control with his draconian zero-COVID policy, looks to revive the economy, and, most importantly, prepares for a precedent-breaking third term as China’s leader. In response to these challenges, the party-state’s enormous propaganda apparatus is ramping up its global disinformation efforts.
Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long engaged in information warfare to manipulate public opinion, hoping to win hearts and minds around the world, Beijing has recently stepped up its global efforts, showing some new patterns and characteristics unseen before.
One of them is that China’s domestic and international disinformation machinery have started to merge. A request-for-bids notification of a Shanghai local police department in 2021 cast light on… [Continue Reading]
Source: https://thediplomat.com/2022/01/why-the-us-must-take-chinas-disinformation-operations-seriously/