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Resources
Browse resources on authoritarian sharp power and its effects on the integrity of institutions and globalized spaces.
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Publication Date: July 27, 2022
How Tor Is Fighting—and Beating—Russian Censorship
Authoritarian Country: Russia
Affected Region: Europe, Ukraine, Eurasia, Russia
Author: Matt Burgess
Russia’s efforts to block Tor came in two flavors—the technical and the political—and extended beyond its own borders. In some areas of occupied Ukraine, internet connections were being rerouted through Russian networks, and that brought censorship and surveillance with it.
Publication Date: July 25, 2022
Aynne Kokas on the Intersection Between Surveillance Capitalism and Chinese Sharp Power
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global
Consumers can be exploited by companies from any number of countries due to a lack of data privacy regulations. The risk of partnering with Chinese firms stands out, however, due to the government’s established framework that pressures firms into storing data in China and sharing it with regulators.
Publication Date: July 24, 2022
Revealed: Documents Show How Roblox Planned to Bend to Chinese Censorship
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: North America, United States, Asia-Pacific, China
Author: Joseph Cox
In partnering with Chinese tech firm Tencent to launch a version of its game in China, video game developer Roblox had to comply with Chinese censorship laws—for example, maps created in the game had to recognize Beijing’s claim of self-ruled Taiwan —and host user data on local servers.
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: Asia-Pacific, Australia
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: Asia-Pacific, Taiwan
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: Europe, Czechia, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Hungary
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.
Publication Date: July 10, 2022
Brands Apologize Quickly to China Consumers, Except on Xinjiang
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global
Author: Jinshan Hong, Yasufumi Saito
With Asia’s biggest economy facing off with the U.S. and others on everything from trade to cybersecurity and human rights to origins of the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese shoppers have become an economically powerful arm of Beijing’s political agenda, hurting revenue growth for foreign companies.
Publication Date: July 5, 2022
Cultivating Friendly Forces: The Chinese Communist Party’s Influence Operations in the Xinjiang Diaspora
Authoritarian Country: China
Affected Region: Global, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Middle East and North Africa, North America, Eurasia, Kyrgyzstan
Author: Lin Li, James Leibold
Through its united front system, the Chinese Communist Party mobilizes community organizations in the diaspora to counter international criticism of its repressive policies in Xinjiang while promoting its own policies and interests abroad.
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: Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Nigeria, Uganda, Asia-Pacific, Thailand, Burma, Jamaica
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, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific
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: North America, United States
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, Tanzania, Zambia, Global, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mauritius
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: Europe, North Macedonia
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.