CHINA’S DISCOURSE ON STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: INSIGHTS INTO PRC EXTERNAL PROPAGANDA
CHINA’S DISCOURSE ON STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: INSIGHTS INTO PRC EXTERNAL PROPAGANDA
Author(s): Aurelio InsisaSubject(s): Political history, Government/Political systems, International relations/trade, Political behavior, Politics and communication, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today)
Published by: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
Keywords: strategic communications; strategic communication; China; Chinese strategic communications; propaganda;
Summary/Abstract: While tracing back to the second half of the 2000s, Chinese research on strategic communications has experienced a notable uptick over the last few years. Recent studies on China’s own practice of strategic communications, and, more importantly, Xi Jinping’s call to build ‘a strategic communications system with distinctive Chinese characteristics’ in May 2021, suggest that current Chinese views on the subject are worthy of analysis. This article examines 15 years of scholarship on the subject in Mandarin against the backdrop of institutional developments concerning ‘propaganda work’ in the Chinese Party-State under the Xi administration. It shows how the Chinese discourse on strategic communications has evolved from an assessment of US doctrines and practices to a discussion of the effectiveness of the country’s ‘external propaganda’. Contrary to previous attempts to adapt to a perceived Western-dominated ‘discourse system’, Beijing is now seeking to affirm its own values and interests on the global stage.
Journal: Defence Strategic Communications
- Issue Year: 10/2021
- Issue No: 10
- Page Range: 111-152
- Page Count: 42
- Language: English