“Experts Appreciate the Virtues of China’s Democracy,” read a headline in one of China’s state-owned newspapers last year. promoted by the Communist Party Not very subtle or precise (China is not very picky and it tacitly supports Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine). But when directed at foreigners, China’s messaging is surprisingly effective, a new study by political scientists at Harvard, Yale and the University of Groningen (in the Netherlands) shows.
The authors surveyed nearly 6,000 citizens from 19 countries. The participants were divided into four groups. first shown chinese propaganda, another was shown a message from the US government, a third got a little bit of both and a fourth was a placebo group. Before and after viewing, participants were asked about economic and political models of the US and China.
Support for the China model increased significantly among those watching Chinese state media. By the end of the study, a majority of people who saw such messages said they preferred China’s government to America’s. American propaganda also had an effect, but less of one. The trend of people in the group watching videos of both the countries turned towards China.
It doesn’t seem that the Chinese videos are convincing people that the country is democratic. But he reinforced the belief that the Communist Party provides development, stability and capable leadership. The researchers say that in the “era of democratic backsliding”, bystanders put considerable weight on these factors when assessing a political system. The recent wave of Covid-19 in China has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
According to estimates, President Xi Jinping gives his publicists $7bn-10bn a year to “tell China’s story well”. A big part of this effort is China Global Television Network (CGTN), the state media company behind the videos used in the study. In this, dozens of foreign bureaus are broadcasting in five languages.
The study showed that CGTN videos were particularly persuasive among viewers in Africa and South America—two places where China’s state-media efforts are ramping up. Support for China is growing in countries such as Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Mexico, according to annual surveys by British pollster YouGov and the University of Cambridge.
The opposite is true in Britain, France, Germany and the US, where Chinese propaganda is easier to dismiss. Last year, China’s state news agency Xinhua produced a James Bond spoof video mocking Britain’s spy agency MI6. Thanks to “free publicity”, the head of MI6 in London responded. But the message of China’s intent is echoing elsewhere.
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© 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under license. Original content can be found at www.economist.com
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