Thread by @fryan

Thrilled to launch 'Borrowing mouths to speak on Xinjiang', a new @ASPI_ICPC paper I co-authored with @arielbogle, @Nrg8000, @AlbertYZhang & @DariImpio!

aspi.org.au/report/borrowi… 🎨 by the brilliant @badiucao

Here are some of the key findings 🧵👇

The report explores how the CCP uses foreign social media influencers to shape & push messages domestically & internationally about Xinjiang that are aligned with its own preferred narratives.

This ~seemingly~ new strategy is being deployed on YouTube/FB/Twitter & even in Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefings.

E.g., in March 2021, Hu Chunhua played a video by British vlogger Barrie Jones criticising foreign media coverage of Xinjiang at a MOFA briefing.

We show that while this incarnation of the strategy with its use of vloggers is new, it is actually part of an old strategy that the CCP has put to use since its inception.

This is how Zhu Ling (朱灵), the former China Daily Editor-in-Chief described it:

For this paper, we uncovered key instances in which Chinese state entities supported influencers in the creation of social media content in Xinjiang, as well as amplified influencer content that supports pro-CCP narratives.

Between Jan 2020 & Aug 2021, 156 Chinese state-controlled accounts on US-based social media platforms published at least 546 posts & shared articles from CGTN, Global Times, Xinhua or China Daily websites that amplified Xinjiang-related social media content from 13 influencers.

We created a network diagram to help illustrate this unique & burgeoning ecosystem.

🔗 bm-xj-vis.aspi.org.au 🔗

It includes Chinese state media & diplomatic accounts that share & promote content by foreign social media influencers.

In the paper, we take a close look at a few case studies including the 'A Date With China' propaganda campaign & online video brand YChina's media tour to Xinjiang.

Influencers from Canada, Germany, the UK & Ghana took part in the ‘A Date with China’ media tour of Xinjiang in May 2021.

The tour was organised by China's chief internet regulator & censor the Cyberspace Administration of China & the party-state media newspaper China Daily.

One of the participants was Stuart Wiggin who runs 'The China Traveller' YouTube account.

He does not describe himself as a party-state media employee on his Youtube ‘About’ section, but is referred to as a People's Daily online reporter by China Daily.

Patrick Köllmer, a German influencer, model, TV host & long-term guest on Jiangsu Television’s ‘A Bright World’ (世界青年说) TV program, also joined the tour.

Clips of Köllmer criticizing foreign media coverage of Xinjiang were later tweeted out by Chinese diplomats.

We also took a look at YChina, the online video brand best known for its on-the-street interviews with China-based foreigners discussing daily life inside China.

Videos made by YChina in Xinjiang received significant amplification on social media from diplomatic and party-state media accounts.

While YChina's own video about a cotton farm in Xinjiang doesn't show it, CGTN reporter Huang Yue also happened to be there.

Subsequent party-state media coverage claimed that this was a "chance encounter".

Gal-Or also gave a live i/v from the field with CGTN anchor Liu Xin.

Gal-Or later told @lemondefr that it was the government that had told him which farmers to meet in Xinjiang.

lemonde.fr/international/…

However, in a recent video, Gal-Or said ‘no state media directed me in any part of my trip. It was my own personal decision to go to Xinjiang.’

Gal-Or addressed criticisms of his Xinjiang videos in a video posted to Chinese platform Bilibili but not
posted to YouTube.

In answering one comment that said that he didn’t address any serious problems in Xinjiang, Gal-Or says ‘friend, there aren’t any problems to mention.’

Gal-Or founded YChina with his Peking University classmate Fang Yedun (方晔顿).

A CCP member, Fang was keen to emphasise the propaganda value of YChina's videos at a press conference conducted by the Propaganda Department in May 2021.

Their company started off with approx US$1.5m in seed funding from Gal-Or’s father’s company Infinity Group & Will Hunting Capital.

In March 2020, Weibo Corporation joined a US$3.5m series A funding round in the company too.

Gal-Or senior has impeccable credentials in China.

Promoting the CCP appears to be a core part of YChina's business strategy.

Gal-Or has stated that the company’s ‘vision’ is to ‘create so-called positive energy,' a fav phrase of Xi Jinping which refers to the need for an emphasis on uplifting messages over criticism.

The routes of many of the influencers we cover in the paper don’t always reflect a representative view of Xinjiang.

Instead, many present videos showing only the same predetermined locations visited as part of organised tours.

Ironically, one influencer we looked at (who appeared to not be on an orchestrated tour) inadvertently recorded evidence of re-education facilities.

In a video showing his descent into Ürümqi International Airport, Noel Lee captured 7 detention facilities from his plane window.

All of this activity is taking place at the same time as foreign journalists in Xinjiang face surveillance & various forms of harassment including physical abuse.

And a lot of it is occurring in an online environment in which state accounts are often inconsistently labelled, or not labelled at all.

The use of foreign influencers creates a degree of plausible deniability for the CCP’s international facing propaganda—a strategy adopted in the knowledge that foreign voices are more likely than official CCP spokespeople to penetrate and relate to target overseas populations.

At the same time, the ability of foreign govts to conduct legit online public diplomacy within China is being curtailed and censored.

aspi.org.au/report/weibo-d…

In combination, this creates a potent one-way vehicle for the extraterritorial projection of the CCP’s political power.

This is a long thread, but there's still plenty more in the actual paper!

Check it out here: aspi.org.au/report/borrowi…

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