The Institute for Strategic Studies of French Military Schools (IRSEM) on Monday released an analysis report on “China’s influence operations”, revealing China’s huge globalized enterprises, and pointed out that the ultimate goal of the world’s second power is to surpass the United States, and most importantly, to The world process exerts influence and imposes China’s own model. However, the report believes that in terms of influence, China’s biggest enemy is China itself.
The 650-page report was written by Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, the dean of the French Military Academy’s School of Strategic Studies, and Paul Charon, an intelligence and China expert. The report exposed China How to expand their influence by including traditional diplomatic means and the establishment of a new network of activities.
The foreword of the report pointed out that for a long time, unlike Russia, China is more committed to winning the love of the world rather than being feared; she wants to buy people’s hearts, show her positive image in the world, and be appreciated. It’s just that Beijing is increasingly adopting infiltration and coercion methods, and its efforts to expand its influence have clearly become tough in recent years, and the methods of consolidating its power have become more and more like those of Moscow. The report described the recent changes in the Beijing regime as a “Machiavelli moment” and emphasized that the Chinese Communist Party is now beginning to believe that it is better for them to be feared than to be loved. This will be more secure.
The report focuses on the development of this influence, sorting out the trajectory of network deployment and development from four aspects. The first is the main theoretical concept of strategy. The central united front that mobilizes all the bargaining chips is internally controlled by China through the Communist Youth League; externally, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army promotes the three wars: “wars of public opinion” in various media and attempts to sabotage The “psychological warfare” that the government and the people trust and disrupt the enemy’s decision-making process, and the “legal war” passed by Beijing on June 10 to counter Western sanctions.
The second part is to clarify the different aspects of playing a role and participating in the action, emphasizing that China’s influence action is the product of the party, the state, the army, and the company. The report specifically mentioned the People’s Liberation Army’s 311 military base in Fujian Province, which is committed to the implementation of the “Three Wars” strategy. The French Culture Channel introduced, “WeChat, Weibo, TikTok, Huawei and everyone must cooperate with this base. The base also has audio-visual services. Production companies, publishing houses. Production content, fake information, propaganda by traditional diplomatic wolf channels, and aggressive influence strategies formulated by Beijing.”
The report also describes an IT “troll army” that brings together at least two million full-time and 20 million part-time Chinese citizens to spread Chinese propaganda and flood social networks, such as psychological exercises against the COVID-19 epidemic. Fooling, inciting cyber hatred against Hong Kong activists and other actions. And the industrialization of information manipulation, massive collection of information and artificial intelligence have allowed China to produce content on a large scale. In 2020, it will try to influence Taiwan’s election. In the past decade, Beijing has tried to influence at least ten elections in seven countries.
Public companies and private companies play an important role in data collection, especially infrastructure, buildings and submarine cables that can be used for data collection; and new technologies, including digital platforms WeChat, Weibo and TikTok, Beidou and Huawei.
As for the third part of the behavior of Beijing’s overseas influence, on the one hand, it uses positive narratives to win the favor of foreign people, on the other hand, infiltration and coercion. Its activities involve expatriates, media, diplomacy, economy, politics, education, think tanks, and manipulation. Actions in information and other aspects have four main axes: defending the Chinese model, boasting Chinese traditions, demonstrating China’s good deeds, and establishing its hegemony.
In the fourth part of the case, the two researchers described China’s huge network operation strategy as concentric circles. Taiwan and Hong Kong constitute the first front of Beijing’s “political war”. They are the outpost, training ground, and “R&D laboratory” of China’s operations. It can then be refined and applied to other goals around the world. The first step of expansion focuses on Australia and New Zealand. The second phase focuses on the rest of the world, especially Europe and North America. And Sweden became China’s laboratory in Europe after the tourist incident in 2018. Case studies include actions against Hong Kong protesters in 2019, or attempts to convince people that Covid-19 originated in the United States in 2020.
The report concludes that the “Russification” of China’s influence operation has been confirmed since 2017. After the municipal elections in Taiwan in 2018, the Hong Kong anti-amendment campaign in 2019, and the pandemic in 2020, the world has only realized this problem. The seriousness, although China’s method is better, it is even more ineffective.
The report assesses the effectiveness of China’s new posture and believes that China’s influence strategy is becoming increasingly aggressive. Although some tactical successes were achieved, they also constituted strategic failures. In terms of influence, China’s biggest enemy is China itself. Since Xi Jinping came to power, China’s international image has deteriorated seriously, and its unpopularity may indirectly weaken the CCP in the future, including facing its own people.
Radio Free Asia reporter Cai Ling reports from Paris Editor: Jiayuan Web Editor: Hong Wei