A string of Chinese English language propaganda videos has baffled western audiences of late. Terry-cotta, an armour-clad animated character, appeared on western social media to counter criticism of China early during the pandemic. Angry rap videos denounced the aggression of American foreign policy and condemned pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. A James Bond parody, No Time to Die Laughing, took aim at British intelligence services’ decision to make China its single greatest priority. Western media responded with a derisive snort. MI6 chief, Richard Moore, wryly thanked Xinhua state news outlet for the free publicity. Many were left wondering how a system that curates the domestic social media space with surgical precision could be so clumsy. But could western viewers have got the wrong end of the stick?
If the intention was to shift perceptions in Europe or north America, this propaganda is undoubtedly off-target. A preachy cartoon character accusing European medical professionals of incompetence mid-pandemic is unlikely to win hearts and minds. The rap videos condemning American foreign policy are so vitriolic, few would find them convincing. The James Bond spoof is painfully laboured, from the character’s name, James Pond agent 0.07, to his catch phrases borrowed from Wayne’s World and the Flintstones. So stilted the performance, so obvious the implication of western moral depravity (including a gratuitous nod to the rumour the FBI’s first director, J. Edgar Hoover, was a cross dresser) and so shrill the rebuttal of concerns on data security, the message is all but lost.
But what these videos hide in plain sight is the prism through which global affairs are viewed in Beijing. The argument that America uses NATO and the promotion of human rights and democracy as a cover for an aggressive, self-interested foreign policy is fully in line with the tweets of China’s wolf warrior diplomats. Resentment of US led action against Huawei, one of China’s flagship tech companies, is real and has been fodder for Chinese cybernationalists. The claim that Western data security concerns are fabricated to suppress China’s high-tech industries is the official position of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After spying wantonly on its European allies, tapping phones of presidents and federal chancellors, how can America credibly lecture anyone on data security? The ‘debt trap diplomacy’ accusations which dog China’s flagship Belt and Road initiative are seen as completely unsubstantiated in Beijing. The naïve James Pond, puppet of American spymasters, speaks to a view of supine Europeans dancing to Washington’s tune.
The videos echo the patriotic art circulating on Chinese social media that is itself an extreme version of official statements. This art has included a photoshopped image of an Australian solider murdering an Afghan child following a report of Afghan civilians being killed by Australian troops - an image controversially retweeted by China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson. President Biden has been depicted holding a bomb in front of a White House background, while Kamala Harris stands by an open grave reserved for Biden, shovel in hand, above the caption, “What a paradise of freedom, democracy and sweet air”. In response to the BBC reporting on forced labour in Xinjiang, an illustration titled “Blood Cotton Initiative” (a play on the Better Cotton Initiative supporting labour standards) features journalists in Klu Klux Klan hoods interviewing a scarecrow in a field, with cotton-picking slaves in the background: a visual representation of the position that allegations of human rights abuses are unjustified and hypocritical given the history of slavery in America.
The English language videos provide an insight on the Chinese authorities’ world view, but they are also noteworthy because from a communications perspective, their lines of attack have legs. The execution may be inelegant, but for audiences outside the West who share many of China’s grudges, the messages may resonate. Security concerns about Huawei trumpeted by the U.S. are often difficult to independently verify and many countries are suspicious of data harvesting by American big tech. The accusation China is purposefully encouraging developing countries to borrow beyond their means is now being challenged by serious independent research, including in the west, and is felt to be patronising in parts of the Global South. Recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East mean NATO is seen as a tool of American expansionist power well beyond China, where the tragic bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by NATO forces is not forgotten. And of course, many countries that are former European colonies share a longstanding resentment of the West.
So, were western viewers too self-centred in their assumptions about the intended audience? James Pond and Terry Cotta were released in English on Twitter and Youtube, platforms banned in China. But could the messages have been destined, in part at least, to reinforce negative perceptions in countries already dubious of western motives? This would fit Beijing’s “discourse power” strategy of increasing China’s prominence on the world stage by promoting pro-China narratives and undermining geopolitical rivals, shifting the burden of proof onto Western countries to silence criticism. In 2021, Xi Jinping called for China to “expand its international communications through international friends” who will be the country’s “top soldiers of propaganda against the enemy”. His firebrand diplomats in places such as Lebanon or Zanzibar have led the charge, using western social media to megaphone anti-western sentiment and undermine the premise of the universality of human rights and the value of democracy. These videos perform the same function. And while they’re unlikely to shift perceptions in the west, they may well reinforce anti-western prejudice elsewhere.
If the West is serious about treating China as a systemic rival, it needs to know better than snigger at communications that could resonate elsewhere. Taking them seriously may have prepared us for China’s willingness to parrot Russian misinformation justifying the invasion of a sovereign nation with claims of NATO aggression and baseless allegations about U.S. biological laboratories in Ukraine. It may yet help to respond to Beijing’s push to co-opt audiences in the Global South as it shapes a narrative that argues the ‘right to development’ overrides the need for democracy and human rights. Should western owned social media platforms be helping amplify misinformation that promotes this view? Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated - in graphic terms - that left unchallenged nationalist narratives lead to conflict. To rebut them effectively, they must be taken seriously and challenged systematically.
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