China using social media to drive narrative in India: Report

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 18

The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) has published a report on how China is using social media to drive its narrative in India and distort facts about the border dispute.

The report ‘How China engages South Asia: Themes, partners and tools’ has a chapter on the use of social media by China.

Communist Party of China’s external messaging targeting Indian audiences on traditional and new media platforms has come after President Xi Jinping in 2013 had said “tell China’s story well”.

Social media was used during the India-China border crises in 2017 and 2020.

China is reaching out directly to Indian audiences through global social media platforms such as Twitter and YouTube. “By embracing new media platforms, the Communist Party is now able to reach out to audiences in India directly and insert itself into domestic political debates as seen during the border crises,” the report said.

The Chinese media strategy involves close coordination between traditional and new media. The 2017 border standoff in Doklam along the India-China-Bhutan trijunction was a seminal moment for China in testing out a new information strategy, the report said. Social media emerged as an information battleground.

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