China’s Trump Card: Soft Power

By: Alana Ballantyne

When it was announced that President Trump would be banning the popular video app TikTok, American teenagers across the country flooded the internet to vent their rage, and they weren't the only ones. Media outlets called the move “embarrassing” and “shameful.”[1] Articles were written warning companies that this ban was only the first in a worrying trend.[2] As the controversy was brewing, the Washington Post ran a front page article praising the Chinese Communist regime, stating that “young chinese communist party members see the Party as a ticket to a better future.”[3] Notably, the article did not include any interviews with young pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, Muslim teenagers detained in a re-education center, or anyone who posted a picture of Winne the Pooh online.[4] Why did the President of the United States ban an app primarily used by dancing teenagers? Well, put simply, the app transmits the data on the phones of U.S. users to China.[5]

The ban  is intended to safeguard the privacy of U.S. citizens and shield data about them — and government officials — from the Chinese government.[6] The President’s August 6, 2020, executive order stated that TikTok “allow[s] China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”[7] This news was met with the equivalent of a collective eyeroll. As one Harvard Business Review article claimed, “[i]f data collection by a company with overseas connections comprises a threat, there are threats all around. . .Many institutions that collect sensitive data have already been hacked — it is estimated that there is a cyber-attack every thirty-nine seconds — and much of that information is for sale on the Dark Web. If the Chinese government wanted the kind of information TikTok could collect, it could be obtained in many other ways.”[8] The census seemed to be that the Trump administration had overreached and overreacted — there was little to no harm in allowing China to collect US data — anything less would restrict the ‘open internet’.[9]

The same month that the president announced that ban, Beijing violently cracked down on the remaining free press and pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong.[10] As of this writing, there are more than 1 million Uigher muslims detained in government “reeducation centers.” [11] Yet, neither of these human rights violations have drawn widespread, meaningful international condemnation. In fact, at the United Nations headquarters, China is still viewed as a “model country.”[12] This stunning silence can be explained.

Since the 1990s, China has used what is known as ‘soft power’ to spread its influence and advance its goals, globally.[13] Soft power is when a country uses methods other than military strength to spread its influence.[14] For instance, China invests millions of dollars in U.N. peacekeeping and mediation missions and urges its citizens to pursue a life of service at the U.N. and other international organizations.[15] Further, China has invested in foreign language news outlets to establish greater control over narratives about China, resulting in more positive coverage.[16] This greater media control allows Chinese leaders in Beijing to reach a broader, international audience for not only high-profile summits between Chinese leaders and their foreign counterparts but also for China’s more underreported activities around the world.[17] Chinese firms have also begun investing heavily in the U.S. media, primarily U.S. based film and sports teams.[18] The NBA makes an estimated $500 million dollars from broadcasting games in China.[19] 

Finally, and perhaps, most relevantly, China began to create and export tech IP – apps  chief among them.[20] China has, essentially, marketed themselves as a valuable, irreplaceable partner on the world stage, and many countries are willing to look the other way as long as the money keeps flowing in. Among app users, is widespread tacit acceptance that, in the age of modern tech, companies, and in this case countries, will use it to spy and monitor its users.[21] People now come of age “knowing what it feels like to be constantly watched.”[22] Being spied on does not trigger the same alarm bells in teenagers now that it would have in earlier generations.

This unwillingness of the international community to condemn Chinese domestic policy at the risk of losing its economic support puts China in a uniquely powerful political position. How long the international community will allow China to flex that power, and for what purposes, remains to be seen. Experts have long warned of the rise of authoritarian influence in the new, online world. Authors of a 2017 report from the National Endowment for Democracy described the concept as “principally not about attraction or even persuasion; instead, it centers on distraction and manipulation.”[23] Reports of entrenched Chinese influence in Australian and New Zealand politics, as well as attempts to pierce German business and political circles, triggered alarms across Western democracies in late 2017.[24] Soft power has become the mode by which China plans to dominate culture. The game is set, and right now, they hold all the cards.

#China #TikTok #TikTokBanned #Banned #ChinaNews #Ballantyne #International #News #Blog #Post

[1] John Tamney, The Mugging of TikTok should Embarrass Every Sentient American, FORBES (Aug. 4, 2020) https://www.forbes.com/sites/johntamny/2020/08/04/the-mugging-of-tiktok-should-embarrass-every-sentient-american/#23ce7ddd446f

[2] Keman Huang & Stuart Madnick, The TikTok Ban Should Worry Every Company, Harvard Business Review (Aug. 28, 2020) https://hbr.org/2020/08/the-tiktok-ban-should-worry-every-company

[3] Anna Fifield, Trump views China’s Communist Party as a threat. Young Chinese see it as a ticket to a better future, The Washington Post (Aug. 4 2020) https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/trump-views-chinas-communist-party-as-a-threat-young-chinese-see-it-as-a-ticket-to-a-better-future/2020/08/03/6a950c0a-c803-11ea-a825-8722004e4150_story.html

[4] Id.; see also, Stephen McDonnel, Why Chinese censors ban Winnie the Pooh, BBC (July 17, 2017) https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-40627855

[5] Zak Doffman, Warning—Apple Suddenly Catches TikTok Secretly Spying On Millions Of iPhone Users, FORBES (Jun. 26, 2020) https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/06/26/warning-apple-suddenly-catches-tiktok-secretly-spying-on-millions-of-iphone-users/#4387a5b934ef.

[6] Huang, supra n. 2.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Joss Fong & Christophe Haubursin, The Problem with Banning TikTok

[10] Colum Lynch, China’s Soft Power Grab, Foregien Policy Magazine (last accessed Aug. 29, 2020) https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/14/china-soft-power-united-nations-hong-kong-crackdown/

[11] Brian Wood, What is Happening with the Uighers in China? PBS Newshour (2020) https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/uighurs/

[12] Lynch, supra n. 5.

[13] Joshua Kurlantzick, Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World, viii-x (Yale University Press, 2007).

[14] See id.

[15] Lynch, supra n. 5.

[16] Eleanor Albert, China’s Big Bet on Soft Power, Council on Foregin Relations (February 9, 2018) https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-big-bet-soft-power

[17] Id.

[18] Id.

[19] Jeff Zillgitt & Mark Medina, As impasse over pro-Hong Kong tweet simmers, what's at stake for the NBA in China?

, USA TODAY (Oct. 9, 2019) https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2019/10/09/nba-china-hong-kong-whats-at-stake/3912447002/#:~:text=NBA%20revenue%20from%20China%20%2D%2D,players%20on%20an%20annual%20basis.

[20] Doffman, supra n. 4.

[21] Colin Horgan, Forget Gen Z, This is Generation Surveillance, Medium (Oct. 14, 2019) https://gen.medium.com/forget-gen-z-this-is-generation-surveillance-d537139e5c0e

[22] Id.

[23] National Endowment for Democracy, SHARP POWER: RISING AUTHORITARIAN INFLUENCE, (Dec. 5, 2017) https://www.ned.org/sharp-power-rising-authoritarian-influence-forum-report/

[24] Id.