Beware Beijing’s Subtle Propaganda Offensive on Western Platforms

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Oct 13, 2025 - 09:59 Updated: Oct 13, 2025 - 09:45
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Beware Beijing’s Subtle Propaganda Offensive on Western Platforms

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Commentary

The Chinese general and military theorist Sun Tzu is known for a lot of short phrases on strategy, including: “To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill.”

This is what the People’s Republic of China seems to be doing to the West with its latest move on social media platforms. It has “made available” a dozen or so writers on Substack, with collectively 50,000 subscribers so far, who provide “interpretations of Chinese government decisions, translations of speeches and analysis for an elite audience—namely, Western diplomats, scholars and journalists,” according to The Economist. Not surprisingly, not all contributors avow their ties to the PRC regime.
Apparently, some who are starving for insight into what is happening in China see this content as “welcoming.” After all, China is vying for world domination by 2049 according to Xi Jinping, so more info on what it intends to do and how it will do so is better than less, no?

I beg to differ.

The suggestion that these writers are “independent” of the PRC is laughable. Nothing is beyond the control of the Communist Party of China. It oversees everything and everyone, as the increasingly ubiquitous security cameras and social media restrictions clearly demonstrate.

On the one hand I get why those in the West want to know more about what is going through Xi’s mind and those of his sycophants (do the latter even matter, though?).  China is too important—economically, militarily, and politically—to ignore and many Western governments are struggling to decide how to deal with it.

I suppose more voices are better than fewer, but the bottom line is that they are all saying the same thing—because they must. Dissent and alternative viewpoints are not exactly allowed in an autocratic dictatorship after all.

My advice to those who are desperate to learn more about what China is up to—really up to—is multifold:
  • Learn Mandarin so you can read the regime’s pronouncements in the original language;
  • Failing that, seek the counsel of those who have mastered Mandarin and who have devoted decades to their study of China (Canada’s Charles Burton is one good example); and/or
  • Read what the security services have to say about China’s activities, especially here in the West where the PRC engages regularly in transnational repression, election interference, intimidation, and the attempted silencing of independent voices.  While these agencies do not go public near often enough, they are getting better at sharing what they have learned on a broad scale.
Beijing may be seen as trying to “explain” its actions, but what it is really doing is attempting to “influence readers’ thoughts drop-by-drop” and establish a “benign mutual relationship.” In other words, it is aiming at getting the West to buy its version of truth, without all the inconvenient parts (Xinjiang, Falun Gong, Tibet, Hong Kong, etc.).  Anyone who cannot see this is not that familiar with China in my eyes (and I am not a China specialist).

Another Sun Tzu saying from “The Art of War” goes: “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”

China is doing precisely what the general suggested: using deception. It would be a bad idea to fall for this.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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