Xi Jinping’s regime invests between $7 billion and $10 billion a year in propaganda (REUTERS/Florence Lo)

“Experts Praise Chinese Democracy,” read a headline in one of China’s state-run newspapers last year. “The West, addicted to war, must stop dreaming of world domination by force,” said another. Communist Party propaganda is not very subtle or precise (China does not hold many elections and tacitly supports Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine). But when addressing strangers, the chinese messages it’s surprisingly effective, suggests a new study by political scientists from Harvard, Yale and the University of Groningen (Netherlands).

The authors surveyed some 6,000 citizens from 19 countries. The participants were divided into four groups. The first showed Chinese propaganda, the second US government messages, the third a bit of both, and the fourth a placebo group. Before and after the screening, participants were asked about the economic and political models of the United States and China.

Support for the Chinese model increased significantly among those watching Chinese state media. At the end of the study, the majority of people who saw these messages said they preferred China’s form of government to that of the United States. American propaganda also had an impact, but less. In the group that watched videos from both countries, people preferred China.

According to estimates, President Xi Jinping gives his propagandists between 7 and 10 billion dollars a year for
President Xi Jinping is estimated to give his propagandists between $7 billion and $10 billion a year to “tell China’s story well.” (Reuters)

The Chinese videos don’t seem to have convinced people that the country is democratic. But they have reinforced the perception that the Communist Party offers growth, stability and capable leadership. In an “era of democratic setbacks,” the public attaches great importance to these factors when evaluating political systems, the researchers say. The study was carried out before a recent wave of covid-19 killed hundreds of thousands of people in China.

According to estimates, the President Xi Jinping it gives its propagandists $7-10 billion a year to “tell the Chinese story well.” Much of this effort is Chinese Global Television Network (CGTN), the state media company behind the videos used in the study. It has dozens of overseas offices that broadcast in five languages.

The study showed that CGTN videos were particularly persuasive with audiences in Africa and South America, two places where Chinese state media efforts are ramping up. According to annual polls by British pollster YouGov and the University of Cambridge, support for China is growing in countries like Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Mexico.

The reverse is true in Britain, France, Germany and the United States, where Chinese propaganda is easy to dismiss. Last year, Xinhua, China’s state news agency, produced a James Bond impersonation video mocking Britain’s MI6 spy agency. Thank you for the “free publicity”, replied the head of MI6 in London. But China’s message seems to resonate elsewhere.

© 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.

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