CHINA’S DISCOURSE POWER OPERATIONS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH - AN OVERVIEW OF CHINESE ACTIVITIES IN

CHINA’S DISCOURSE POWER OPERATIONS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH CHINA’S DISCOURSE POWER OPERATIONS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH AN OVERVIEW OF CHINESE ACTIVITIES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, LATIN AMERICA, AND THE MIDDLE EAST 1 CHINA’S DISCOURSE POWER OPERATIONS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH Lead author and researcher Kenton Thibaut The mission of the Digital Forensic Research Contributors, writing and research Lab (DFRLab) is to. [...] This includes the Forum on China-Africa United Kingdom are assessing its expansionism and have Cooperation (FOCAC) in Africa, the Forum of China and already moved to counter its influence.4 By gaining con- the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States trol of the narrative to depict its expanding role in the (China-CELAC Forum) in Latin America, and the China- world as legitimate, rules-bas. [...] As of March 2021, thirty-nine countries in licize its donation efforts and mitigate criticism over its Sub-Saharan Africa had joined the initiative, along with lack of transparency regarding the outbreak in the early thirty-four in Europe and Central Asia, twenty-five in days of the pandemic.23 The Global South was a signif- East Asia and the Pacific, eighteen in Latin America and icant target of. [...] This cap- the story of its growing presence on the world stage, then ture of the African media space complements another premier Wen Jiabao urged Chinese media companies to phenomenon related to Chinese influence: the massive go international and “present a true picture of China to the increase in Chinese foreign investment in the continent world.”28 To support the strategy, the Ministry of Financ. [...] 21 Number of Twitter Posts CHINA’S DISCOURSE POWER OPERATIONS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH CONCLUSION China sees the Global South as an important Forum in Latin America, and the CASCF in the Middle vector for enhancing its discourse power and East, and uses the economic weight of the BRI to inten-has deployed a number of strategies to shore sify the impact of its messaging.up its influence there.