This series is part of a three-year research initiative examining China’s influence in the global information ecosystem. After baselining China’s strategy and the impact of its actions in communities across the globe, the final report outlines strategic recommendations for the U.S. government to counter PRC activities. This project finds that the United States will not be successful in addressing the challenges of Chinese influence if it sees that influence as separate from the interconnected economic, political, and technical domains in which its strategy is embedded.

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CHINESE DISCOURSE POWER: ASPIRATIONS, REALITY, AND AMBITIONS IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN

CHINESE DISCOURSE POWER: AMBITIONS AND REALITY IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN

The report traces the evolution of China’s conception of discourse power and how it came to occupy a central role in China’s national strategy. It provides a map of how the party-state has been restructured, in part, to help operationalize China’s goals to gain discourse power globally.

CHINESE DISCOURSE POWER: CAPABILITIES AND IMPACT

Building on the first report’s analysis of China’s discourse power strategy, this second report examines its implementation through the lens of “media convergence” (融媒体). The report evaluates China’s efforts to expand its narrative reach, tailor content to specific audiences, and strengthen control over global digital infrastructure.

A World Map Of China 3D Rendering - Chinese Discourse Power Cover graphic

EFFECTIVE US GOVERNMENT STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS CHINA’S INFORMATION INFLUENCE

The focus of this report is on how the US government can best respond to China’s weaponization of the information domain, including the architecture, tools, and strategies that exist for addressing PRC influence and information manipulation, as well as any potential gaps in the government tool kit.

Media

Our experts

Our experts

Kenton Thibaut
Kenton Thibaut

Senior Resident Fellow, China

Kenton Thibaut is a senior resident China fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), where she leads China programming for the Democracy + Tech Initiative, and a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (IPSI) at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. In this role, Thibaut serves as head of China research and principal investigator for projects analyzing China’s role in the global technology ecosystem and its foreign-policy priorities in the digital space.

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