The targeted media strategy of the Chinese government in Central Europe, including Czechia, dates back to 2013 when state-funded news outlet CRI launched its Czech-language service, first out of the V4 countries. This was soon followed by social media accounts of these agencies, or, for instance, the Chinese embassy.
In all cases, however, the link to the Central Government remained relatively explicit. A shift came, according to CEIAS, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shed an overwhelmingly negative light on China as the epicentre of the virus.
China capitalized on the simultaneous social media boom, during the periods of lockdown to introduce targeted influencers with knowledge of the respective local languages. In 2021, two new bloggers landed on the Czech scene: Lada Wang and Pepa Zhang.
On Instagram, they have amassed over 40,000 followers and themselves follow some of Czechia’s most prominent social media figures. Their bios are nearly identical, written in Czech, reading along the lines of: “Hi! My name is Lada/Pepa. Now, I live in Beijing. I would like to share my interesting life with you.”
Both are employed by news outlet CRI, but unlike the service itself, their individual content speaks to followers in a more familiar tone, about topics like culture, history, economy, and technology. They also show off some of China’s tourist sites in travel-blogger style.
Kara Němečková, co-author of the CEIAS study, explains that this more “human-faced” media strategy entails issues with transparency:
“The majority of followers probably have no idea that these influencers are employees of CRI, because they do not openly disclose their connection to Chinese state media. On the surface, they appear to be ordinary people – travel bloggers or vloggers – and their content therefore comes across as more natural and trustworthy than that published by official channels,” she says.
Explicit political content, understandably, is a notable omission on both of the social media channels. Implicit attempts to iron out the Chinese government’s legal and political controversies are nevertheless relatively common.
Trips to Xinjiang and Uyghur erasure
China’s easternmost province of Xinjiang became global news in 2014, when the Chinese government launched a targeted campaign against the local Uyghur population. In an ongoing series of human rights abuses, often characterized as persecution or genocide, members of the Muslim minority group are rounded up in labour camps.
In the social media videos, the Xinjiang province is featured frequently, almost disproportionately often. Bloggers characterize it as a peaceful travel destination, with no mention of the local Muslim culture or communities. A very conspicuous oversight, says Němečková:
“This form of propaganda is less apparent than traditional state messaging and appears more authentic because it is presented in the style of regular vlogging or travel videos. However, according to our survey, only a negligible portion of respondents in the Czech Republic view Chinese policy in the area positively. From this, we can infer that the PRC’s efforts to sway public opinion in its favor on this issue have so far been unsuccessful. But it should be noted that as many as 53.9 percent of respondents take a neutral stance on the matter, which indicates potential for future Chinese influence campaigns,” she explains.
Targeting Western “white monkey” influencers
China-based bloggers are not the only pawns in the social media strategy of the Chinese government. In November last year, prominent Czech Tik-Toker Jan “Honzi” Michálek was invited, supposedly by Chinese TV, to a fully-covered discovery trip of China.
As apparent from his videos, now deleted on all platforms, Michálek also travelled to Xinjiang. Ivana Karásková, researcher at the Association for International Questions (AMO), is critical of the move:
“I doubt there was any genuine exchange of views about what is happening in Xinjiang. The video he published was supposed to be about how beautiful China is and how he’s there with a bunch of wonderful friends, but he somehow forgot to mention — at least in this video — that it was originally a sponsored trip, and that those friends are from CRI, which is a state-run broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” she says.
Michálek has since distanced himself from the programme, claiming he had no idea about going along with a propaganda campaign. Karásková notes that Western influencers are pejoratively known as “white monkeys” in China, and represent a common strategy to boost the country’s image both inwards, and outwards:
“Besides external propaganda, there is also internal propaganda, which targets the domestic population and aims to show that even a European, a white person, is enthusiastic about China’s progress — suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party is doing a good job. It’s a kind of reverse legitimization of the regime in the eyes of its own people. In the case of Honza Michálek, we don’t know exactly what kind of videos he filmed or whether they were actually intended for the Chinese market, but I think it likely went both ways,” she explains.
Czechs remain sceptical
Czechia is not the only V4 country with its “own” Chinese influencers. One blogger is also employed for the Polish audience, whilst Hungary and Slovakia are not concerned by the strategy, CEIAS finds. According to their findings, however, the campaign has not quite struck a chord with the Czech audience.
Out of the mentioned V4 countries, the study claims Czechia is the most sceptical towards China, saying that the country is “generally not sympathetic to the Chinese political system and its values, and they are not convinced of the peaceful nature of China’s foreign policy.”
The primary point of contention is supposedly Beijing’s attitude towards the territories of Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, with whom Czechia maintains close ties. On the other hand, CEIAS found that Czechs tend to have a more optimistic view of China’s foreign economic policy.
As a result, the study remarks a “growing share” of neutral respondents, who could potentially be susceptible to Chinese messaging campaigns. “This shows that with a change in strategy, China could still influence public sentiment in the region,” CEIAS warns.
link