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Browse resources on authoritarian sharp power and its effects on the integrity of institutions and globalized spaces.
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Source: Journal of Democracy
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
Combating Beijing’s Sharp Power: How Australia’s Civil Society Led the Way
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Australia, Asia-Pacific
Author: John Fitzgerald
Australian civil society was years ahead of the government and its agencies in exposing PRC surveillance and interference among local diaspora communities and in working to defend the rights of those belonging to these communities as equal citizens of Australia.
Source: Journal of Democracy
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
Combating Beijing’s Sharp Power: Taiwan’s Democracy Under Fire
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Taiwan, Asia-Pacific
Author: Ketty W. Chen
The Chinese Communist Party continues to launch influence operations against Taiwan, often using proxies to serve PRC aims. One factor working in Taiwan’s favor as it resists these efforts is the commitment of its robust and vibrant civil society to defending the island nation’s democracy.
Source: Journal of Democracy
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
Combating Beijing’s Sharp Power: Transparency Wins in Europe
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: North Macedonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Czechia, Europe
Author: Martin Hála
Making friends among foreign political elites through united front work, “economic diplomacy,” corruption, and other means allows Beijing to repurpose coopted institutions for its own agenda, undermining democratic systems from within. It is the role of democratic civil society to expose these efforts.
Source: Swedish National China Centre
Publication Date: July 10, 2022
Purchasing with the Party: Chinese Consumer Boycotts of Foreign Companies, 2008-2021
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global
Author: Viking Bohman, Hillevi Pårup
Consumer boycotts, including one-third which were found to be supported by party- or state-affiliated organizations, presented new challenges for foreign businesses seeking to capitalize on the significant purchasing power of Chinese citizens.
Source: Alliance for Securing Democracy
Publication Date: June 14, 2022
China and the Digital Information Stack in the Global South
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Jamaica, Asia-Pacific, Uganda, Burma, Thailand, Nigeria, Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Bryce Barros, Nathan Kohlenberg, Etienne Soula
To counter digital authoritarianism, civil society must learn how the PRC party-state uses its influence to shape, influence, control, surveil, and suppress information that is contrary to the PRC and Chinese Communist Party’s goals or critical of those institutions or other autocrats.
Publication Date: June 8, 2022
China’s Southern Strategy
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Middle East and North Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Nadège Rolland
Chinese policymakers are using economic incentives to gain influence in the “global South” and sway votes in international fora. Countries with independent media, nongovernment organizations, and strong civil societies are more likely to resist attempts at corruption, co-optation, and coercion.
Publication Date: May 26, 2022
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Loses Chinese Investor Due to Pro-U.S. Messaging
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: United States, North America
Author: Erich Schwartzel
After putting up millions of dollars for a 12.5% stake in Top Gun: Maverick, Tencent backed out of the $170 million Paramount Pictures production over growing concern that Communist Party officials would disapprove of the company’s affiliation with a movie celebrating the American military.
Publication Date: May 23, 2022
Expansion or Contraction? How Putin’s War in Ukraine Affects His Efforts in Africa
Authoritarian Country: Russia
Affected Region: Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Central African Republic, Sudan, Mali
Author: Todd Prince
The Kremlin’s goals in Africa included projecting itself as a great power, avoiding international isolation, eroding the luster of liberal democracy, and gaining access to strategic ports. But Russia’s drawn-out invasion of Ukraine risked undermining the Kremlin’s progress in Africa.
Publication Date: May 8, 2022
How China is Rewriting the Norms of Human Rights
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Global, Zambia, Tanzania
Author: Tanner Larkin
By fashioning an illiberal, authoritarian “human rights” doctrine—and socializing it with foreign actors in regions like Africa—the Chinese Communist Party is turning international law into a means of propping up authoritarian regimes and undermining human rights defenders.
Source: Fighting False News Narratives (FN), Citizens Association MOST
Publication Date: May 8, 2022
The Immortal Regiment as Kremlin’s Piercer of Sharp Power in North Macedonia on Victory Day
Authoritarian Country: Russia
Affected Region: North Macedonia, Europe
Author: Rosana Aleksoska, Darko Aleksov, Zlatko Dimitrioski, Zhivko Mickoski
The so-called Immortal Regiment, an annual procession marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, is a tool used by the Russian embassy and its proxies in North Macedonia to distort historical facts and shape perceptions about current events, like Russia’s war in Ukraine and EU integration.
Source: Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Publication Date: May 7, 2022
Fueling Secession, Promising Bitcoins: How a Russian Operator Urged Catalonian Leaders to Break With Madrid
Authoritarian Country: Russia
Affected Region: Europe, Spain
Author: Antonio Baquero et al.
Nikolai Sadovnikov, a diplomat who reportedly worked as a strategic adviser to the Russian foreign minister, offered Catalonians $500 billion to aid their attempts to secede from Spain. Kremlin-watchers have long warned that President Putin believes undermining European unity is in Russia’s interest.
Source: Visegrad Insight
Publication Date: April 27, 2022
Russia’s Digital Battleground: Polish Society
Authoritarian Country: Russia
Affected Region: Poland, Ukraine, Europe
Immediately after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the Polish online space was riddled with disinformation about fuel shortages, refugees, and Ukrainian statehood, among other themes. Disseminators of fake news adapted to real socio-political events in order to influence, fabricate, and even control them.
Publication Date: April 24, 2022
Disney Is Refusing to Cut LGBTQ Scene in Doctor Strange 2, Saudi Arabia Says
Authoritarian Country: Saudi Arabia
Affected Region: United States, North America
Author: Sian Cain
Disney declined Saudi Arabia’s requests to cut “LGBTQ references” from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as the movie was slated for release around the world. Advanced tickets were removed from sale in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Publication Date: April 20, 2022
He’s Pro-Russian, Anti-Zelensky and Rallying for Putin in West Africa
Authoritarian Country: Russia
Affected Region: Sub-Saharan Africa, Burkina Faso, Mali
Author: Danielle Paquette
Pro-Russian content surged in West Africa as Putin aimed to expand his country’s global influence and counter reputational damage during the war in Ukraine. Once sporadic and unsophisticated operations evolved to connect better with target audiences, especially in nations grappling with conflict.
Source: Atlantic Council
Publication Date: April 19, 2022
China’s Discourse Power Operations in the Global South: An Overview of Chinese Activities in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Middle East and North Africa, South Africa, Iran, Venezuela, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean
Author: Kenton Thibaut
Case studies on South Africa, Venezuela, and Iran reveal evidence of a symbiotic relationship between Beijing’s efforts to enhance its discourse power—including by co-opting the voices of foreign leaders—and local governments’ efforts to weaken the checks and balances that civil society imposes.