South Korea Must Counter Chinese Influence Operations—and the U.S. Should Provide Support

voters, targeting specific candidates, and responding to comments from authentic users in order to create controversy along racial, economic, and ideological lines.27 In 2023, the Department of Justice charged 34 Chinese officials of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) for running a disinformation operation that utilized hundreds of MPS officers stationed in the U. [...] The sites also disseminated CCP propaganda materials and depicted them as press releases.33 To disguise themselves, the organizations adopted media and domain names similar to those of legitimate Korean news agencies and pretended to be members of the Korea Digital News Association. [...] Human Rights Watch concluded that Confucius Institutes are extensions of the Chinese government that pressure host universities to censor topics and perspectives in course materials that are deemed to be anti-China and to use hiring practices prioritizing political loyalty.36 The institutes have tried to shut down events at their host university that were perceived to be hostile to China.37 The U. [...] The Chinese goal would be to raise criticism and resistance to President Yoon’s policies in order to help the progressive Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) do better in the elections which, in turn, would hinder Yoon’s ability to continue his principled policies. [...] The party currently has a majority in the unicameral National Assembly and adding to its ranks in the election would further embolden obstruction to Yoon’s policy and budget requests.