University of Rhode Island professor Renee Hobbs said evidence of widespread propaganda efforts in the United States by the Chinese government are increasingly obvious — and very dangerous.
“You don’t have to search very far to find examples of Chinese propaganda on college campuses,” said Hobbs, a professor of communications studies who also serves as director of the Harrington School of Communication Media Education Lab.
She said it has been under way for several years.
“Beginning in 2004, the Chinese government launched the first Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland. Today there are more than 100 of them on college campuses across the United States,” Hobbs said. “The Chinese government funds Confucius Institutes and provides Chinese teachers to teach language classes. There are also more than 500 Confucius classrooms in elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States.”
Such efforts may be defined as propaganda or public diplomacy, which is the ability to influence global policy through appealing to people’s hearts and minds, she said. The U.S. has long practiced such policies, and China watched and learned, Hobbs said.
“Public diplomacy from the United States has been often credited with winning the Cold War, as organizations such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Voice of America, and the United States Information Agency communicated the ideals of democracy, individual rights, and the free market,” she said. “Through establishing the Confucius Institute program, the Chinese government is attempting to change the global impression that China is an economic and security threat.
“The Communist Party’s Propaganda Office controls the Chinese Ministry of Education, which is affiliated with the Confucius Institute headquarters, known as Hanban. U.S. schools that contract with Hanban receive between $100,000 and $200,000 in start-up costs, around 3,000 books and other materials, and the services of a Chinese director at no cost to the school,” Hobbs said. “At many underfunded state universities, support from the Chinese government makes it possible to offer courses in Chinese language and culture that might not be available otherwise.”
But, she noted, these resources come with strings attached.
“In Confucius Institute programs at U.S. universities, topics like the independence of Taiwan or the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre are strictly off limits,” Hobbs said. “That’s why some see the Confucius program as compromising the academic freedom of American universities. Not only does the Chinese government approve all teachers, events and speakers for the Confucius Institute, but the Chinese teachers who participate in the program sign contracts pledging they will not damage the national interests of China.”
Backlash toward Confucius Institutes emerged in 2014 when more than 100 faculty members at the University of Chicago signed a petition saying that the institute was incompatible with the values of the university, she said. Evidence has mounted of true goals behind this program.
“A documentary film on the Confucius Institutes in Canada, ‘In the Name of Confucius,’ tells the story of Sonia Zhao, whose experience teaching Chinese at McMaster University in Canada contributed to the termination of the Confucius Institute at that institution in 2013,” Hobbs said.
She said it’s important to recognize that the expansion of China’s presence in schools in the U.S. and other countries is taking place at the same time that China itself is intensifying its crackdown on dissent, tightening its censorship of the Internet and publishing prohibitions on what it calls “false ideological trends.” This includes promoting what the propaganda machinery calls Western values.
“The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee issued a report on these efforts, finding that China has spent nearly $200 million in efforts to indoctrinate students by painting a sympathetic portrait of the Chinese communist government,” Hobbs said. “The Senate report states that such efforts ‘attempt to export China’s censorship of political debate and prevent discussion of potentially politically sensitive topics.’”
Recent events have been utilized as well. The Atlantic pointed to the global discussion surrounding the origin of COVID-19 as an opportunity for the Chinese government to amp up its propaganda.
“While the [Chinese Communist Party] has long sought to be a global influencer, their efforts today are aggressive and sophisticated,” said Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, as reported by the Atlantic. “In short, they’re looking to reshape the history of coronavirus and protect their reputation at home and around the world.”
President Xi Jinping stated in 2016 that Chinese state media must become an international influence, according to Reuters. Xi called for the creation of “flagship media with strong international influence.”
With encouragement from the state, Chinese news outlets have been expanding their audiences. The official China Daily news outlet publishes multiple editions for audiences around the world, and state news agency Xinhua has established “dozens” of new locations throughout the globe. China Central Television (CCTV) operates an English-language channel that runs 24/7 in the U.S.
The Chinese Communist Party has been leveraging propaganda and disinformation against its own citizens, The New York Times reported recently. Residents of Shanghai and Beijing have faced food shortages and delayed medical care during China's most recent lockdown orders, while the CCP has tried to push a “triumphant” COVID narrative.
“The censorship is more effective than two years ago, but this shows its limit," according to Xiao Qiang of the University of California, Berkeley, as reported by the New York Times. "They can’t solve the root of the problem. People see the government could be getting this wrong to the point of disaster.”
Hobbs, author of “Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age,” has previously stated that this effort is being conducted across multiple media platforms.
“Propaganda is an expansive concept that goes far beyond political campaign advertising and social media posts to include documentaries, protest marches and rallies, historical fiction, monuments and memorials, and even murders live-streamed on video,” she said.
Her book includes “dynamic classroom and online learning activities for learners of all ages,” and is described as “a comprehensive resource for teaching about media literacy including partisanship, computational propaganda, content marketing, fake news and algorithmic personalization in entertainment.”
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