Chinese Soft Power and Media Discussion and Updates

SanWenYu said:

Why couldn't the government create a media of its own for this purpose?

Click to expand...

All Chinese media are state owned to some extent. So you need media from HK or Singapore that targeted the international audience. SCMP would be ideal if not due to the fact that Jack Ma made no attempt to rein in the bias and anti-China stance of SCMP.

SanWenYu said:

SIGs like this are not same as the central government. In such cases, the SIGs are taking advantage of the government's mistake in having used SCMP for intentional leaks.

Click to expand...

Often we don't know if such person is spoken for the central government or SIGs. However, it might be intentional to make things murky so they could see the reaction from the West before making some decision.

SanWenYu said:

The government could have used one of its own agencies, like GT, for intentional leaks.

Click to expand...

GT is stated owned so no deniability. If you wanted to replace SCMP, then you need at least The Straits Times or SCMP or even Duowei News(Shut down).

KYli said:

All Chinese media are state owned to some extent. So you need media from HK or Singapore that targeted the international audience. SCMP would be ideal if not due to the fact that Jack Ma made no attempt to rein in the bias and anti-China stance of SCMP.

Click to expand...

If the intentional leaks had been given to, say, GT instead of SCMP, as long as some of the leaks were eventually proved factual, that could have given GT some or even enough credits as a reliable source of info regarding the Chinese government for the international audience.

SanWenYu said:

If the intentional leaks had been given to, say, GT instead of SCMP, as long as some of the leaks were eventually proved factual, that could have given GT some or even enough credits as a reliable source of info regarding the Chinese government for the international audience.

Click to expand...

GT is state owned. It doesn't matter what it reports as the West would consider such policies or viewpoint is from the Chinese government. That means there would be no deniability. The West doesn't care as it would pinpoint GT as the state owned media and accuse the Chinese government flip flop on its policies or stance.

The only way out is for someone in China to purchase or found a media in English that sole purpose is to intentionally leak information from the Chinese government.

Another thing is media such as Caixin which is prominent and used to have accessed to many inside information and leaks. However, Caixin was emboldened and attempted to shape domestic agendas as it got more influential. Caixin cooperated with many SIGs and got very cozy with the West. So even a domestic media such as Caixin can be easily corrupted and become even a bigger threat to China than SCMP would ever be.

KYli said:

Another thing is media such as Caixin which is prominent and used to have accessed to many inside information and leaks. However, Caixin was emboldened and attempted to shape domestic agendas as it got more influential. Caixin cooperated with many SIGs and got very cozy with the West. So even a domestic media such as Caixin can be easily corrupted and become even a bigger threat to China than SCMP would ever be.

Click to expand...

Yeah it all boils down to the fact that CPC does not take PR war seriously. Such media outlet should be used as a PR weapon therefore must be scrutinized regularly to clean out SIG and foreign influence.

There's a bunch of generically named technology and China-focused channels on youtube like:

Some of them have even racked up decent views and subscriber counts. Can't tell if it's amateur or government backed... It sounds like they're translating Chinese news articles and putting it through TTS software.

luminary said:

There's a bunch of generically named technology and China-focused channels on youtube like:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Some of them have even racked up decent views and subscriber counts. Can't tell if it's amateur or government backed... It sounds like they're translating Chinese news articles and putting it through TTS software.

Click to expand...

These types of channels not very well-edited at all. Hard to believe these are government-backed but Chinese government is not exactly known at propaganda war either.

For those who don't know, the english football team Manchester City is owned by the City Football Group whose shareholders are 81% is majority owned by Newton Investment and Development LLC, 18% by the american firm Silver Lake and 1% by chinese firms China Media Capital and CITIC Capital.

Chinese infrastructure actually generates soft power in countries passively over time. A commuter of the Indonesia HSR will make positively association with China multiple times a day. China does not spend anything to achieve this.

In contrast, the West relies on continuous heavy investment into its media to shape short term public sentiment. Media barrage is all outrage, sound bites and viral headlines that gets forgotten the next news cycle. 30 years after the US-Japan trade war, nobody remembers the public panic and outspoken racism then, but everybody knows the brands Honda and Toyota.

When even the Anglos are wondering what the hell is taking China so long: