at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he studied Southeast Asian politics and economics and China's relations with Southeast Asia, including Chinese investment, aid, and diplomacy. He is the author of five previous books on China and Southeast Asia.
Kurlantzick applied the "Page 99 Test" to his new book, Beijing's Global Media Offensive: China's Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World, and reported the following:
In my new book, Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World, page 99 primarily discusses how China is increasingly using influence tactics, both online and in more old-fashioned ways, that seem similar to what Russia has done in recent years. It also describes how, until recently, most countries were not prepared for Beijing’s rapidly expanding efforts to influence other countries’ domestic politics. I note, “most countries have been, at least until recently, prepared to recognize [China’s growing influence efforts] and combat [them.”]Learn more about Beijing's Global Media Offensive and follow Joshua Kurlantzick on Twitter.
Opening the book to page 99 does give the reader some decent idea of the themes of the whole work – in fact page 99 does discuss the central theme of the book, which is that over the past decade China has launched a global, sizable effort, for the first time since Mao’s era, to influence the domestic politics and societies of many other countries. This includes countries in its near neighborhood – some of the first targets were Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand – but this influence campaign has expanded globally, to Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the United States as well. Some of what China is doing – disinformation online, increasing use of efforts to disparage democracy and stir rumors – does seem to be following in Russia’s footsteps.
But China is also using other efforts to wield influence within other countries, shape global narratives, protect the Communist Party from criticism, and potentially promote China’s model of authoritarian capitalism. These other efforts include a massive expansion of China’s state media, growing control of locally-owned Chinese language media in other countries (including the United States), a more assertive brand of diplomacy, and growing efforts to wield more direct influence within universities, research institutions, and the Chinese diaspora abroad, as well as meddle in political elections in some other countries. However, I also argue (which does not come across on page 99) that a lot of China’s efforts to influence other countries have failed, and actually backfired against China, which today is viewed negatively, in polling, by many countries around the world. Its support for Russia in the Ukraine war, and the ongoing protests in China don’t exactly help the Chinese government’s global image either – especially as the government cracks down on and tries to censor the demonstrations at home.
The Page 69 Test: Charm Offensive.
The Page 99 Test: A Great Place to Have a War.
--Marshal Zeringue
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