A 'United Front' with 'Foreign Lips and Faces' for Russia, China

Recently Russian government efforts to influence the November 2024 United States presidential election have been in the news quite often. For example, as with China's "united front" strategy, there are malign influence operations, sometimes using fake websites. These mimic the names of mainstream media outlets. 

Third in a series

Read the first part: The United Front: How China Manages its Hall of Mirrors
and the second part: The United Front: China's Great Global Campaign of Repression

Related to this, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released an affidavit regarding the Russian company Social Design Agency's role. According to the affidavit, the company has a list of 2,800 people it has identified as influencers around the world willing to promote Russian interests. 

Roughly 20 percent of them live in the United States. Reportedly, within Kremlin circles the plan to use American influencers as puppets is known as the "Good Old USA Project."

One case in particular has attracted considerable attention. The DOJ has unsealed indictments against two Russian nationals working for the Russian state media propaganda arm RT. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco explained that RT "co-opted online commentators by funneling them nearly $10 million to pump propaganda and disinformation across social media to US audiences."

According to the indictment, the money went to an unnamed company based in Tennessee, later identified as Tenet Media. When the news surfaced, some of the highly paid influencers claimed that they had been duped. Apparently, we are to believe they never bothered to look into where their hefty compensation had come from. 

China's 'Cyber Sovereignty'

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also been active in seeking to influence US elections. However, it apparently loathes both major presidential candidates. 

If anything, the Chinese use of influencers is much larger and considerably more subtle than that of their Russian counterparts. On the one hand, the authorities in China do everything possible to block unfiltered news from abroad. They scrub social media of all dissent out of concern that it might rival official narratives. On the other hand, they cultivate foreign influencers with millions of followers who are willing to be "guided" to allign their content with the Party's goals and interests. 

Moreover, the Party is determined to quash any competing narratives, not just about current events, but history as well. And not just inside China. One prominent legal scholar at a leading university, for example, has argued that China's "cyber sovereignty" gives the Chinese government jurisdiction over the internet concerning China-related statements. 

That applies, the scholar claims, regardless of where the person making them is located. It also makes such person subject to Chinese law. By that he means China's draconian national security law. 

Telling China's Story 'Right'

Xi Jinping has also issued an order to the CCP to "tell China's story right." The CCP has discovered that funneling their desired messages through young, attractive influencers speaking in what are purported to be their own voices can be infinitely more effective than the stodgy output of traditional propaganda organs. 

Nevertheless, some of these "independent" influencers are actually employees of state media masquerading as influencers. The Party uses vlogger, influencer and journalist identities interchangeably. This helps to further disguise the source of the "information" being provided. 

Domestically, the Party is especially interested in having approved ethnic minority influencers push a narrative of a lovable CCP. 

Using this strategy, foreign surrogates readily praise China's economic and social successes. Moreover, they also back its positions in territorial disputes, such as ton the Senkaku Islands and Philippine reefs. They also go so far as to defend China's abysmal human rights record. 

The presentations by some of the more gung ho foreign "friends of the CCP" bear an astonishingly close resemblance to the fulminations of China's "wolf warrior" diplomats. In fact, some are so over the top that they have become objects of ridicule. Take, for example, influencers, both Chinese and foreigners, judged to be praising China to attract followers. In Chinese internet slang, they are said to be employing "wealth passwords" (caifu mima). 

'Singing from the CCP Songsheet'

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), an independent, non-partisan think tank recently studied Chinese internet behavior. They released a report entitled "Singing from the CCP's Songsheet: The role of foreign influencers in China's propaganda system." It describes in detail, including through case studies, the network of foreign influencers that Beijing has created. 

According to the report, one party-state media worker explained that the aim is to "help cultivate a group of 'foreign mouths,' 'foreign pens,' and 'foreign brains" who can stand up and speak for China at critical moments." 

Foreign influencers are reaching increasingly larger and more international audiences. Therefore, it is becoming more difficult to detect disinformation and propaganda disseminated through social media. This is especially so on TikTok, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter). For one thing, under Elon Musk, X has dropped state-affiliation labels and allows verification for party-media workers, including foreigners. 

The ASPI report adds, "The CCP is using foreign influencers to enable its propaganda to surreptitiously penetrate mainstream overseas media, including into major US cable TV outlets." 

A COVID-19 Case Study

Perhaps the most interesting case study contained in the report concerns the role of foreign influencers in the propaganda system to support China's COVID crisis response strategy. Foreign influencers played a key role in the Propaganda Department's drive to control international narratives about COVID-19 in China. 

During the original Wuhan outbreak few foreign journalists were allowed to visit the city. Also, local residents who dared describe the dire situation faced serious reprisals. Therefore, foreign influencers were trotted out in force to extol China's handling of the situation. One American vlogger, in particular, was effusive in his praise for China's response. He even compared it favorably with the shambolic situation he claimed to have witnessed back in the US. 

There are millions of Chinese and foreign influencers creating China-related content. Those consciously pushing the Party line constitute only a small subset. 

Most foreign influencers in China do not actively push the Party line or promote CCP policies. And undoubtedly some foreign visitors or residents are impressed by the country's modernization and culture. Some of those also say so on social media. They are different from the co-opted influencers being discussed here. 

Also, in the days of Yan'an, there were ideological sympathizers with the CCP. American journalist Edgar Snow is a prime example. However, it is doubtful whether today there are many foreigners enthused about promoting Beijing's agenda of "socialism with Chinese characteristics for the Xi Jinping era." 

Co-opting the Foreigners

That beings so, the CCP has created competitions offering large prize money. This is a CCP drive to cultivate foreign influencers who will deliver content aligned with Xi Jinping's "soft power" goals. 

It also conducts "media tours" for foreign influencers to hotspots like Xinjiang and Tibet. And the CCP has even established multilingual influencer studios. In these, Chinese media experts collaborate with select foreign influencers to develop new approaches to "telling China's story." 

Media insiders in China have come to recognize that foreign influencers can be more effective at reaching foreign audiences. That is because they share the same cultural traditions, way of thinking and manner of expressing themselves. 

As with influencers worldwide, the goal of foreign influencers in China is to make money. Along with that, they want to expand their presence on the social media map. That is of course while keeping the Party happy. 

And some are quite successful. The ASPI report cites the case of a Mexican couple who manage the "Mexicans in China" (Mexicanos en China) YouTube account. It is the sixth top YouTube channel in Mexico with nearly seven million followers. 

One of the pair is quited in an interview published by the local government in Shenzhen: "A phenomenon that deeply impressed me is that the Chinese people are with the Party. It doesn't matter who I asked, everyone supports the Party and loves the government, including the young people." 

Finding the Right Side of the CCP Line

Apparently, however, it does not pay for Chinese influencers to become overly jingoistic. Not even if it's for an effort to curry favor with the Party and Chinese public. There was an intresting recent incident that illustrates this point. 

It occurred at the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) in Beijing. The ruins of the Old Summer Palace have particular significance in Chinese history. That is because the complex was purposely burned down by the British and French troops in 1860 during the Second Opium War. It thus stands as a symbol of national humiliation during the age of Western imperialism.

A Chinese influencer who calls himself Yaren exchanged words there with two Japanese tourists. Details of what precipitated the spat are a bit unclear. However, it appears to have involved jockeying for position to take selfies. In any event, Yaren loudly proclaimed he would never make way for any Japanese and began following the pair around.

"Patriotic" Yaren probably figured he would be able to tap anti-Japanese feelings to pick up more followers. Also, he was likely hoping to garner official praise. However, his market strategy backfired. Even a magazine affiliated with the official CCP organ The People's Daily declared, "blind xenophobia has no soil to grow in our country." 

One of the comments on Chinese social media concluded that Yaren had been "deliberately trying to provoke" the visitors. 

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Author: John Carroll

John Carroll is a Kyoto-based freelance writer and JAPAN Forward contributor. He is currently writing a book on the religious traditions and superstitions of Japan's ancient capital.