While Zelenskyy Promises Peace, Ukraine’s Army Faces Serious Challenges
Xi Jinping Boosts the Party’s Control and His Own Authority
Islamic State’s Easter Sunday Attacks in Sri Lanka: Assessing the Government’s Response Two Years On
Minsk Wages Diplomatic War on Multiple Fronts
On April 4, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka proposed to “optimize” the number of Belarusian embassies and their staff around the world. Essentially, the Belarusian leader declared, if Belarus’s “diplomatic presence” in some countries has no “prospects”... MORE
Russia Builds up Its Export Potential in Baltic Basin
Russian natural gas giant Gazprom signed a preliminary agreement with global engineering company Linde to deliver engineering and procurement services for the Ust-Luga gas processing plant on the Baltic Sea. Gazprom CEO Miller signed the... MORE
Penned in on Multiple International Issues, Putin Strives to Show Resolve on Ukraine
Putting military pressure on Ukraine could have seemed to the Russian leadership to be the most practical way to assert Moscow’s central role in international affairs. The standard working assumption in the Kremlin is that... MORE
China Learning From Russia’s “Emerging Great Power” Global Media Tactics
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers observed that China has employed newly assertive tactics—including spreading widespread Russian-style disinformation—which suggested that “Beijing is increasingly seeking to shape the global information environment beyond its borders”... MORE
Exploring Chinese Military Thinking on Social Media Manipulation Against Taiwan
Introduction Much has been written about China’s social media manipulation in Taiwan following the 2018 nine-in-one local elections, but both Taiwanese and Western analyses have skewed heavily towards the impact of this disinformation, overlooking how... MORE
How the CCP Mobilized a Cross-Border Disinformation Campaign Against the Czech Senate Speaker
Introduction: Propaganda and Disinformation Recent events in the Czech Republic (CR) offer an interesting case study in Chinese propaganda and disinformation. For the purpose of this article, the distinction between propaganda and disinformation is understood... MORE
Xinhua Infiltrates Western Electronic Media, Part One: Online “Advertorial” Content
Introduction For many years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s state propaganda apparatus has sought to expand its influence among foreign audiences as part of a broader effort to achieve greater “discourse power” (话语权, huayuquan)... MORE
A Different Kind of Army: The Militarization of China’s Internet Trolls
Introduction The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) believes it is engaged in a global struggle for China’s “image sovereignty” (形象主权 xingxiang zhuquan).[1] Party leaders recognize that “the main battlefield for public opinion” is on the internet,... MORE
Editor’s Note to the Special Issue on Chinese Information Operations (April 2021)
This is a special theme issue of China Brief, focused on the rapidly developing topic of Chinese disinformation and information operations (IO) more broadly. Although the control and weaponization of information has always been a... MORE