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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: 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.
Source: The Diplomat
Publication Date: April 15, 2022
The CCP’s Ukraine War Propaganda
Authoritarian Country: Russia, China
Affected Region: Global
Author: Sarah Cook
Three tactics played an outsized role in the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign to shape public opinion about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: flagship state media echoing Russian state disinformation, manipulation of social media hashtags, and censorship of alternative viewpoints and information sources.
Source: Journal of Democracy
Publication Date: April 14, 2022
How Beijing Runs the Show in Hollywood
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: North America, United States
Author: Aynne Kokas
The relationship between PRC rules, the Chinese entertainment industry, and U.S. media conglomerates underscores a transition in the role of entertainment in politics. Beijing increasingly weaponizes technology and corporations’ dependence on political authorities for market access to control content.
Source: Journal of Democracy
Publication Date: April 14, 2022
China’s Tech-Enhanced Authoritarianism
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global
Author: Samantha Hoffman
Emerging technologies, particularly those utilizing big data, are a critical component of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to manipulate global audiences. Large datasets can reveal trends in human behavior, enabling the party-state to better understand public sentiment and disseminate propaganda.
Source: Doublethink Lab
Publication Date: March 30, 2022
Analysis: How Ukraine Has Been Nazified in the Chinese Information Space?
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Ukraine, Europe
Author: Jerry Yu
Previously established cooperation agreements laid the groundwork for Russian and Chinese state media and state-linked social media to work in tandem to influence public opinion in China, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora in favor of the invasion of Ukraine on “denazification” grounds.
Source: Associated Press
Publication Date: March 29, 2022
How China’s TikTok, Facebook Influencers Push Propaganda
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global
Author: Amanda Seitz, Eric Tucker, Mike Catalini
The Chinese Communist Party has built a network of social media personalities who proffer propaganda to users around the globe, operating in lockstep as they deflect international criticism of human rights abuses and advance Beijing’s talking points on world affairs like Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Source: German Marshall Fund
Publication Date: March 23, 2022
The Distortion of UN Resolution 2758 and Limits on Taiwan’s Access to the United Nations
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Taiwan, Asia-Pacific
Author: Jessica Drun, Bonnie S. Glaser
Beijing has managed to institutionalize and normalize its “One China” Principle and stance on Taiwan within the United Nations (UN) by signing secret agreements with UN bodies, restricting Taiwan’s access to the UN and its facilities, and embedding PRC nationals across various levels of UN staff.
Source: Hoover Institution
Publication Date: March 20, 2022
China’s Sharp Power In Africa: A Handbook For Building National Resilience
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Glenn Tiffert, Oliver McPherson-Smith
Although the Chinese government touts its dealings in Africa as partnerships among equals, overall they fall far short of that ideal. Beijing’s high-flown rhetoric masks a deeply asymmetrical relationship full of unfulfilled promises, hidden costs, and corrosive impacts.
Source: Radio Free Asia
Publication Date: February 27, 2022
Turkey Closes Uyghur School in Istanbul After China Complains
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Middle East and North Africa, Turkey
Author: Jilil Kashgary
Authorities in Istanbul closed a Uyghur elementary school over alleged pressure from PRC officials who worried students had received anti-China instruction. The dispute came amid increasing relations between the countries, including a bilateral agreement to exchange information on terrorism financing.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Publication Date: February 27, 2022
Pro-China Twitter Accounts Flood Hashtag Critical of Beijing Winter Olympics
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global
Author: Georgia Wells, Liza Lin
Automated pro-China accounts flooded Twitter with spam-like tweets using #GenocideGames, a hashtag initially shared by activists to raise awareness about human rights violations in Xinjiang. Researchers said the tactic diluted the hashtag’s power to galvanize criticism of Beijing during the Olympics.
Source: Global Americans
Publication Date: February 22, 2022
Soft Power, Confucius Institutes, and Latin America and the Caribbean
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: El Salvador, Panama, Latin America and the Caribbean, Dominican Republic
Author: Scott B. MacDonald
Confucius Institutes have actively stifled scholarship deemed detrimental to the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In Latin America and the Caribbean, they provided the PRC with an effective instrument for creating long-term support for CCP business and political objectives.
Source: Asia Democracy Network
Publication Date: February 21, 2022
China’s Rise Under the Lens: Democracy and Human Rights at Risk
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Philippines, Malaysia, Asia-Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, South Korea, Pakistan, Cambodia
Author: Cleve V. Arguelles, Karel Jiaan Antonio Galang
Beijing continues to actively undermine strong democracies, enthusiastically support illiberal forces in fragile democracies, and diligently create relationships of mutual dependence among non-democracies. Outright coercion, disinformation, censorship, and influence-peddling campaigns are commonplace.
Source: The Diplomat
Publication Date: February 21, 2022
China and Russia Want to Rule the Global Internet
Authoritarian Country: China, Russia
Affected Region: Global
Author: Charles Mok
The governments of China and Russia, two countries with a history of censoring the internet, banning social media platforms, jailing dissidents, and launching misinformation campaigns, issued a joint statement affirming their support for the “equal rights of countries to regulate the world-wide web.”
Source: New York Times, ProPublica
Publication Date: February 17, 2022
Bots and Fake Accounts Push China’s Vision of Winter Olympic Wonderland
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global
Author: Steven Lee Myers, Paul Mozur, Jeff Kao
Chinese authorities leveraged bots, fake accounts, genuine social media influencers, and other tools to shape how the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were portrayed, even outside the country.
Source: Foreign Affairs
Publication Date: February 16, 2022
Russia Has Big Plans for Africa
Authoritarian Country: Russia
Affected Region: Middle East and North Africa, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mali
Author: Samuel Ramani
Russia is not expanding its influence in Africa just through the use of military contractors; it has also made a hardcore diplomatic push across the continent and views Africa as both a provenance for resources for its state-owned companies and a potential market for Russian goods.