This is China’s secret propaganda army on TikTok, YouTube and Co.

Beijing should increasingly rely on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to specifically manipulate the opinions of people abroad. Facebook’s parent company Meta warned about this last week. China is the third most common source of foreign influence, after Russia and Iran, the report said.

An Australian think tank has now published a report detailing how foreign social media stars spread Chinese Communist Party (CCP) content on their networks.

The influencers come from countries such as the US, Great Britain or New Zealand, have millions of fans and use both Chinese and Western social media platforms, reports the ASPI (Australian Strategic Policy Institute). (see Resources).

The Chinese defender from the US

American video blogger Jerry Kowal, based in Shanghai, is one of the most successful influencers in China. His popularity among Chinese viewers is undisputed: more than 26 million followers follow his content on his Chinese channels. Kowal has a keen sense of the topics and messages that are particularly well received in China.

At the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021, Kowal flew back to China from San Francisco. Arriving at Shanghai airport, he lamented the US response to the virus and praised China’s strict measures: “I’m happy.” I feel free,” Kowal said in fluent Mandarin with an American accent. China has the best organized pandemic response in the world.

Kowal has also appeared in Chinese state media – for example in a livestream from New York for CCTV News during the corona pandemic.

When asked by the Financial Times, the US blogger said his 2021 video on Covid regulations was not propaganda and was not influenced by Beijing.

What is China aiming for?

The Australian institute ASPI places the influencer’s reporting in a different light: it writes about a cohort of foreign minds who are ‘cultivated’ to further Beijing’s propaganda strategy. This unified chorus of voices on social networks could reflect the ideologies of the world Chinese Communist Party (CCP) more effectively to a wider audience than traditional media such as Chinese state television.

“The ultimate goal is to protect the CCP-controlled culture, discourse and ideology from the dangers of foreign and free political expression, and thereby preserve the party’s legitimacy,” the Australian experts said in their report.

The institute also warns that Beijing’s strategy could have a “significant impact on the global information landscape.” The increasing use of foreign influencers makes it increasingly difficult for platforms, governments and users to distinguish between independent content and propaganda and maintain the integrity of public discourse on social media.

Critical reporting about Beijing is censored on Chinese platforms. Instead, the ideals of Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as “fundamental socialist values” and contributions that “expand the global influence of Chinese culture” would be promoted. Influencers who toe the party line are rewarded with success, while others have little chance of reaching a large audience.

But not only that.

What role do foreign students play?

China’s systems for promoting stars on social media are complex and difficult to understand. According to the Australian report, lead actors are not typically given detailed instructions on what to produce. Instead, their creativity is influenced by a mix of incentives and controls. The CCP organizes competitions for “significant prize money”, among other things.

International students are also being recruited to Chinese universities to build a “latent talent pool of young, multilingual, social media-friendly influencers.” For example, a new media studio at Huaqiao University in Fujian province aims to bring in students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other regions to “tell China’s story well.”

In 2021, more than 200 international students from 16 countries, including the US and Ireland, took part in associated video shoots. According to the report, Russian influencers are also being used to strengthen ties with Moscow.

The youth are therefore “guided” to defend Chinese narratives on sensitive political issues such as human rights issues or territorial disputes, the think tank said.

A media manager from Shanghai, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Financial Times: “There are certain restrictions on expression and regular political training on what can and cannot be said.”

The genocide trivializer from New Zealand

New Zealander Andy Borham has 1.8 million followers on Chinese platforms. But the influencer is also active on YouTube to – as he puts it – ‘counter the Western anti-China narrative’.

One of the topics Borham talks about in his videos is the Xinjiang region in northwest China. According to experts, a million Uighurs have been persecuted and sometimes detained in camps in the autonomous region. In recent years, internal government documents have repeatedly become public.

The US and other Western governments are calling it a ‘genocide’ against the Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region. However, Boreham rejects the accusations against China on his channels. He criticizes the alleged incitement of the so-called mainstream media. And he also reacted angrily to the ASPI report.

On X, formerly Twitter, Boreham wrote:

He also accused the institute of not contacting him before publication. However, Boreham declined to comment on the report to the Financial Times.

“It’s a shortcut to viral fame”

However, the pattern that can be observed in countless videos from foreign influencers, according to the ASPI report: Chinese culture, society, infrastructure and politics are praised, Western societies, media and sometimes even products are criticized. “Nationalism sells and foreigners know it. It’s a shortcut to viral fame,” one of the report’s authors, Fergus Ryan, wrote on X.

In recent years, Beijing has also severely restricted the rights and accreditations of some independent journalists and major media companies who reported from China in the past.

Other media had also warned about Chinese propaganda and disinformation on social media – especially regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Washington Post wrote in an article last year:

Last summer, the German government also agreed on a new strategy for dealing with Beijing. One of the points of the article on disinformation states:

Sources

(t-online/dsc)