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China Government

How China Uses Western Influencers As Pawns In Its Propaganda War (techdirt.com) 104

Posted by BeauHD from the truth-decay dept.
According to the New York Times, China is recruiting YouTubers to report on the country in a positive light and counter the West's increasingly negative perceptions. "The videos have a casual, homespun feel. But on the other side of the camera often stands a large apparatus of government organizers, state-controlled news media and other official amplifiers -- all part of the Chinese government's widening attempts to spread pro-Beijing messages around the planet," the report says. "State-run news outlets and local governments have organized and funded pro-Beijing influencers' travel, according to government documents and the creators themselves. They have paid or offered to pay the creators. They have generated lucrative traffic for the influencers by sharing videos with millions of followers on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook." An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from Techdirt, which summarizes the Times' findings: Typically, the Chinese government support comes in the form of free organized trips around China, particularly in Xinjiang. By showing the influencers a carefully sanitized image of life in the country, the authorities don't need to worry about negative stories. They simply make it easy for the YouTubers to present images of jolly peasants and happy city-dwellers, because that's all they are allowed to see. One of the authors of the New York Times piece, Paul Mozur, noted on Twitter another important way that the authorities are able to help their influencer guests. Once produced, the China-friendly videos are boosted massively by state media and diplomatic Facebook and Twitter accounts: "One video by Israeli influencer Raz Gal-Or portraying Xinjiang as 'totally normal' was shared by 35 government connected accounts with a total of 400 million followers. Many were Chinese embassy Facebook accounts, which posted about the video in numerous languages."

A new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, "Borrowing mouths to speak on Xinjiang," has some more statistics on this practice: "Our data collection has found that, between January 2020 and August 2021, 156 Chinese state-controlled accounts on US-based social media platforms have published at least 546 Facebook posts, Twitter posts and shared articles from [China Global Television Network], Global Times, Xinhua or China Daily websites that have amplified Xinjiang-related social media content from 13 influencer accounts. More than 50% of that activity occurred on Facebook." Mozur says that the use of Western influencers in this way also allows employees of Beijing-controlled media, like the journalist Li Jingjing, to present themselves as independent YouTubers. On Twitter, however, she is labeled as "China state-affiliated media." The Australian Strategic Policy Institute sees this as part of a larger problem (pdf): "labelling schemes adopted by some video-sharing and social media platforms to identify state-affiliated accounts are inconsistently applied to media outlets and journalists working for those outlets. In addition, few platforms appear to have clear policies on content from online influencers or vloggers whose content may be facilitated by state-affiliated media, through sponsored trips, for example."

According to Mozur, China's state broadcaster is actively looking for more influencers, offering bonuses and publicity for those who sign up. In the US, China's consulate general is paying $300,000 to a firm to recruit influencers for the Winter Olympics, ranging from Celebrity Influencers with millions of Instagram or TikTok followers, to Nano Influencers, with merely a few thousand. The ultimate goal of deploying these alternative voices is not to disprove negative stories appearing in Western media, but something arguably worse, as the New York Times report explains: "China is the new super-abuser that has arrived in global social media," said Eric Liu, a former content moderator for Chinese social media. "The goal is not to win, but to cause chaos and suspicion until there is no real truth."
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How China Uses Western Influencers As Pawns In Its Propaganda War More

How China Uses Western Influencers As Pawns In Its Propaganda War

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  • there is no truth (Score:4, Insightful)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @07:12PM (#62084407)

    > The goal is not to win, but to cause chaos and suspicion until there is no real truth.

    Sorry China, right-wingers beat you to it.

    • If I were the CCP, I would hire these guys [wikipedia.org] instead. There's a big propaganda war going on indeed, it's targeting American and western citizens, but the perpetrator is not the CCP.

      Of course, saying anything positive for China would be labeled as "Hill & Knowlton"; otherwise, where do we get the public supports and their money [washingtonpost.com]?

      • Is an example of Chinese editors, I am pretty sure. It is not as outrageously propogandish as it was, but there is certainly no room for the strong evidence of a lab-leak.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 )

        If I were China, I wouldn't even bother with propaganda targeted at Americans. If we got into a war with them, the progressives would demand that we surrender immediately because they would argue it's a war based on race, it just funds the military industrial complex, we're just being imperialists, send them hugs and kisses instead, etc. Basically China already gets propaganda for free.

        • Read my comment again: "but the perpetrator is not the CCP."

          Who can guess who's one trying to brainwash Americans.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Cyberax ( 705495 )

          If I were China, I wouldn't even bother with propaganda targeted at Americans. If we got into a war with them, the progressives would demand that we surrender immediately because they would argue it's a war based on race

          And the right wing will scream about "mah freedumbs" once the government tries to conscript them into military. With conspiracy theorists saying that the Chinese strikes are false flag operations to allow Biden to impose the World Government.

          • And the right wing will scream about "mah freedumbs" once the government tries to conscript them into military.

            About the only right leaning person I can think of that would do that is Ted Nugent. During the last draft, the progressives were the ones burning their draft cards, spitting on and/or otherwise assaulting and harassing returning veterans even if being a veteran wasn't their choice, going to the peace corps, and if that didn't work, running to Canada (and then repeating that every time their guy loses the presidential election.) Also, having served in the Army myself, and been around many veterans of the ot

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Cyberax ( 705495 )

              About the only right leaning person I can think of that would do that is Ted Nugent

              Trump.

              • Trump is a draft dodger for sure, but he didn't do that in dramatic fashion like you suggest (and I'm no fan of Trump.)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          The fact that you say that is exactly why they need to target Americans. They sow discord and division, with posts like yours that you then go on to parrot for them. You are the kind of unwitting pawn TFA is talking about.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      > The goal is not to win, but to cause chaos and suspicion until there is no real truth.

      Sorry China, right-wingers beat you to it.

      Was going to say the same thing. China always copying.

  • There is a lot to like about China. The Chinese people by and large are great people.

    • I just love Beijing in the Spring. The cherry blossoms, the clear blue skies. China has it all.

      • I just love Beijing in the Spring. The cherry blossoms, the clear blue skies. China has it all.

        We're going to have to assume you are being sarcastic because air quality in Beijing is atrocious [theguardian.com].

        Either that or a very poor troll.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by blackomegax ( 807080 )
          I just got back from there. The sky is crystal clear.

          China has been cracking down on vehicle emissions and industrial waste the last few years. The guardian is part of the CIA's "Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation" anti-sino propaganda thinktank.
          • Really? Beijing has improved, but China is terrible. The actual sensors used to monitor air quality, in real time, would put huge swaths of the country in the "unhealthy" (red) to "very unhealthy" (purple) to some parts being "hazardous" (brownish-red). Beijing's air is not representative of China as a whole, and a lot of that has to do with high sulfur content coal from their power generation.

            https://aqicn.org/map/china/

            For comparison the US is mostly "Good" to "moderate" with some pockets of bad ar

            • I just got back from Shenzhen which is far away from Beijing down south. The sky is crystal clear too. Plus, almost every truck, bus and cab I saw in Shenzhen are electric vehicles. It's insane.

          • I see what you did there

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            The actual Guardian article they linked to has a photo of now it normally is (clear blue skies) and how it was during that freak event.

            Air quality in Beijing and other Chinese citied used to be really bad. Still is some places. I went to Shanghai a few years ago, the smog was noticeable. Being a fairly ruthless government, when they crack down they really crack down, so some areas have improved a lot.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This is the goal of the Communist Party of China. To associate everything that is good with China and the Chinese people and conflate them with the Party. Thus, if you are critical of the Communist Party of China, you are being critical of the Chinese people, you capitalist dog!

      They know what they're doing here.

    • Which is why it's such a shame that they're under a genocidal dictatorship running slave-labor concentration camps and stealing the territory of its neighbors.
  • Americans have no right to complain. The US government has been paying influencers and spreading propaganda around the world for 80 years.
    • Most if not all countries have puppets that do this now. This very story want to pass the China bad narrative
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Are /. Audience important enough for (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ... for the CCP to hire "Influencers" ? According to the sheer number of posts always defending CCP [blindly], it seems so.

  • I've been watching Xiaoma for a while. He's been to China a few times, and he studied in Beijing, but I think he cottoned on to the fact that China was using him.

    He rather quietly shifted his focus from surprising Chinese people in NYC by speaking several Chinese dialects, to learning and speaking at least two dozen languages and surprising people in their native countries. He still does Chinese, but it's no longer his exclusive focus.

    One thing for sure though, he never talks about the Chinese government.

    • Re:YouTuber XiaomaNYC... (Score:5, Informative)

      by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @07:39PM (#62084505)

      I'd recommend checking out laowhy86. He is an American that lived in China for 10 years and does a lot of exposing videos about the CCP and this very practice.

      He's quick to point out that he really loves Chinese culture and the Chinese people, but much like the rest of us is pretty anti-CCP. Hell at this point it would be anti-Chinese to support China - their own people often are the ones hurt by their government.

      • Ooh, thanks! Also, talk about threading a needle. Chinese friends on one side, and the Chinese government on the other? That can't be easy, or healthy.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by IdanceNmyCar ( 7335658 )

        Laowhy86 is a chad. In this way, he actually is kind of the iconic representation of foreigners in China and why the more slang form laowai is used to refer to many foreigners instead of waiguoren. In fact there a whole communities that often like to pump up this mentality, like reddit's former CCJ2 where they even started saying "laowinner". These people left because they were being treated less and less like gods, especially in tier 1 cities (where they primarily populate). Laowhy does a good job at trave

        • Re:YouTuber XiaomaNYC... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Thursday December 16, 2021 @08:13AM (#62086035) Journal

          Being "anti-CCP" for disliking some of the approach of the Chinese government is as silly as saying your "anti-democracy" because you think America and the UK have a fucked up partisan system. If you come to China without an open mind about what Chinese Communism is or could be, then you shouldn't be surprised when our biases don't change.

          You know I don't think I feel like being open minded about genocide. I am 100% happy with my biases in that regard and I have no plans to change them.

          • This is the very point. Your bias is China is evil, so someone tells you they are committing genocide and you eat it up.

            The dude who pushed that shit first wrote about large scale forced labor and detention centers in Tibet. Hey, I live in Tibet, why do I hear nothing about it. Could it be it's a load of shit based on spreadsheet data by an individual who has never step foot in China... Funny how the talking point now is Xinjiang.

            Funny enough America had this place called Guantanamo bay which used extra-leg

            • This is the very point.

              Found Winnie the stooge.

              Your bias is China is evil, so someone tells you they are committing genocide and you eat it up.

              Nice equating of the CCP and China, asshat.

              What actually is the case is that the CCP are a genocidal regime also happy to disappear political prisoners, oppress the general population and kill or imprison anyone who gets in their way so I conclude that the CCP is evil.

              Funny enough America had this place called Guantanamo

              America does something bad so CCP genocide i

              • I am admitting countries do wrong things to preserve their way of life. This has to be accepted. Nothing is black and white.

                However, there is no debate with you because you still keep pounding this word "genocide". That word loses meaning each time you repeat it because that's not's what is happening, even if there is a certain wrongness in what's happening we cannot discuss it because we have no common ground of understanding.

                • I am admitting countries do wrong things

                  No, you're admitting countries other than those controlled by the CCP do wrong things.

                  This has to be accepted.

                  Then accept it. Go on...

                  However, there is no debate with you because you still keep pounding this word "genocide".

                  I call it like I see it. The CCP is trying to entirely wipe out that cultural group. Sure they're not rounding the up and mass murdering them, Hitler style or hacking them to pieces in the style of Rwanda, but between the prison camps, forced in

            • Does the CCP allow you to read or discuss openly anything you feel like reading? Do they allow you to get to any website you want from within mainland China? Do they not censor information? Is the great firewall of China fiction? Can you post about democracy on Weibo, Renren, and Youku? I know you think what the CCP is going is "nice" to those people but when you hear from people not in fear of the CCP and people who were "re-educated" by force of the govt. it's not as rosy as you depict.

              • I have bought banned books in China via Chinese services but there are also books that have been banned in schools and libraries in America. There are films banned in America because they depict things like child sexuality. However, I can often freely discuss anything I choose with my Chinese friends but we use English and primarily in person which maybe is how such "heated matters" should be discussed -- food for thought.

                There are websites again banned in China. Pirate bay is a big one. China's bans are pa

            • I'm sorry, that you try to justify slave labor and concentration camps by lying about the nature of a POW camp just disgraces you even further than the CCP already has.

              • We are inching closer to a place we can have a reasonable discussion. Prison systems in a variety of countries have "forced labor", including America. More so if you are attempting to train a trade, you will have goods produced by these individuals and what is the most ethical way to deal with those good, destroy them?

                However, you return to the dogma again by saying concentration camps. They aren't putting people into incinerators. The connotation of this word is loaded around what happened in Germany and t

                • A punishment passed by a jury of one's peers in a public trial with guaranteed rights and fair processes is not slavery. Forcing innocent members of a particular ethic group to labor for you is very much like the sort of thing the US fought a civil war to stop.

                  "Concentration camps" are preceisly what China has setup. They are taking members of an ethnic group and concentrating them in camps for the expressed purpose of "re-educating" (brainwashing, torturing, etc.) them. Other parts of that "re-educat

        • Communism is, by nature and design, always a dictatorship. It is inherently evil and corrupt, and nothing but evil and corruption can ever come of it. That you could even conceive of people being prejudiced by rights, liberty and political participation just goes to show how insidious that vile system can be.

          • Again, sling your bias and make it clear there is no debate on the matter with you. Your mind has already been made up, you know right from wrong and could never begin to realize that maybe things are more complex like yin and yang.

            They aren't prejudice by having those things, they are prejudice because they perceive themselves as being an authority of them which is funny because you claim communism is the dictatorship.

            Chinese people have rights they just are significantly limited in some ways, such as esse

  • Hey, where do I send my resume to get one of these sponsorships? :-D

  • Seriously, there are LOADS of ppl here that are either ignorant westerners and others that are actually paid Chinese trolls, who work together to trash the west, and push the Friendly Chinese government side (war is peace; Freedom is slavery; Ignorance is strength ). Sadly, free westerners have allowed themselves to be bought by this.

  • Why does this link "recruiting YouTubers to report on the country in a positive light" redirect right back to this post? Does anyone have the actual link so I can see who these Youtubers are?

  • Just like other said, almost every countries employ / sponsor people to speak good of them.

    What's truly worth reporting and what's the mainstream media failed to report is, the moderation team in social medias are infested by Chinese / Chinese apologists that are eager to silence anti-China or anti-CCP viewpoints and people. Because of conflict of interest of those "progressives" wanting to silence anti-Biden or pro-Trump people too, they turned a blind eye to their communist buddies.

  • ... YouTube should prohibit content creators from being sponsored by states that block YouTube. Sheesh.

  • "Confucius has no interest in falsehood; he did not pretend to be prophet; he claimed no inspiration; he taught no new religion; he used no delusions; flattered not the emperor under whom he lived" --Voltaire (b. 1694) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • any authoritarian regime is built on 80% propaganda and 20% violence. Therefore, it is not surprising. I wrote a term paper with the help of specialists from https://www.bestessays.com.au/... [bestessays.com.au] on this topic, so I studied a lot of points of view

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