Chinese and U.S. Propaganda: A History and Modern Analysis



Joshua JensenNYU Brademas Center August 31, 2020Chinese and U.S. Propaganda: A History and Modern AnalysisPropaganda has been a part of the human species for as long as there have been ideas and shared languages. Group attempts to convince or discourage outsiders only grew in importance as people lived closer and closer together, creating cities, nations, and empires. The term originated in the 17th century in the Roman Catholic Church with the establishment of a missionary group whose goal was to propagate the message of the church to non-believers.During the French Revolution the term evolved from its original religious foundation to obtain a far more overtly political connotation. During the 20th century, numerous wars as well as the effects of widespread electrification and globalization shaped our understanding of the term propaganda. Today the combination of the term propaganda being used as a means of discrediting and claiming deceit from one’s political opponents and the pure democracy of social media have created a difficult and confusing atmosphere around the term. In this brief essay I will look at the history of this term, its relationship to both the United States and the People’s Republic of China, as well as how propaganda and information dissemination have been shaped by the ever changing and expanding online world, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic raging across the globe today.To better understand how these major powers utilize propaganda and information dissemination on both domestic and international scales we must first define the term as best we can. In the face of World War Two the United States government asked the American HistoricalAssociation to produce a series of pamphlets with the goal of “a war-time experiment in the education of a citizen army”1. The second pamphlet produced for this series was titled “What isPropaganda?” and was written by professor of journalism Ralph D. Casey of the University of Minnesota. Throughout the pamphlet he attempts to explain propaganda in its most basic terms, and its applications during the contemporary World War, but for the sake of this essay we will focus primarily on the definition for propaganda that is given in the opening paragraphs. That is that most people understand that propaganda is “any ideas or beliefs that are intentionally propagated”2. He goes on to present a number of classifiers that explain why the propagandafrom the Allies is fundamentally different from that of the Axis powers, bringing sharp focus on the efforts of Nazi Germany. What is interesting is that while here, Casey is willing to call democratic information dissemination as propaganda, a little over fifty years later it would be extremely difficult for an American institution to use the term so broadly across the political spectrum. In 1997, another academic Douglas Walton wrote a paper titled “What is Propaganda and what exactly is wrong with it?” This paper is of interest because while it unquestioningly accepts that propaganda is a bad thing, it attempts to find appropriate classifiers for a more selective use of the term. He writes of the struggle that comes from anything that is labeled as propaganda being wholly dismissed merely because it is called propaganda, and creates a criteria to evaluate if a piece of information should be thrown out as propaganda or kept for the value its messaging could entail.3 His reservations and exploration of what propaganda was is reflected incontemporaries over 25 years later via a report by Christian Mull and Matthew Wallin. In theirreport for the American Security Project they wrote “Propaganda can be and often is completely1 Ford, “Foreword to the Bound Edition of the Pamphlets | AHA.”2 Casey, “Defining Propaganda I | AHA.”3 Walton, “What Is Propaganda, and What Exactly Is Wrong with It.”, 383.truthful information. This information, while truthful, is often presented selectively to highlight some facts while omitting others that may present a differing view of an issue”.4 Thisunderstanding of propaganda would encompass many different kinds of public communication, and as a result in 1965 Tufts University established a new term for United States propaganda: Public Diplomacy. Their goal was to redefine public information efforts by differentiating the harmful “propaganda” from the necessary but unassuming “public diplomacy”. This effort has been complicated in recent years with the rise of alternative issues around public information. From disinformation to misinformation to “fake news” the need to further discuss and refine the term for each new variant can be found in a report for the National Endowment for Democracy. Published in 2017, this issue brief provides a crucial modern understanding of how propaganda and the information revolution have interacted with each other. They point out a shift in advertisers to social media sites from more traditional media that shows an issue in the regulation of information presented to users. While a news station has an agenda and mission that shapes the information they spread, social media has been built on the idea of complete free speech. Any individual can share any piece of information, no matter the accuracy or intent. That is a big modern danger, not only from dangerous actors such as national governments, but from the unknowing masses subjected to and potentially spreading these harmful messages.5 One thing Idon’t think Douglas Walton expected to be so central to conversations about propaganda todaywas when he wrote “One aspect of propaganda is that, by its very nature, it is designed to reach and influence a mass audience, and as such, it is a kind of technique that must appeal successfully to the emotions, commitments and enthusiasms of the crowd to win acceptance for a4 Mull and Wallin, “Propaganda.”, 2.5 “Issue Brief.”conclusion”.6 Social media as an industry has only become as powerful as it is now due to itsalgorithmically personalized appeal to each and every one of its billions of users. This creates an entirely new front of propaganda that allows any institution or group to personalize and target their messages to very slim demographics.Now that we understand the history and modern concerns of propaganda let's dive into our comparison of propaganda in the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Any denial of propaganda being used by American’s can be refuted as early as the war for American Independence with such famous pieces as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”.7 The formalcreation of federal propaganda groups started in 1917 with the “Committee on Public Information”, continuing on to add the “Office of War Information” in 1942. In 1952 they were consolidated along with any other departments or agencies that dealt with information dissemination into the United States Information Agency. In our current government there are information dissemination groups in each branch of the military, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and the State Department’s “Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs”, which was created in 1998 as an abolishment of the United States Information Agency.Any legislative attempt to define these efforts in the United States has been plagued by one persistent question: Can the American public legally be exposed to information that is spread internationally? Up until 2012 the answer was no. In fact, there were explicit bans on the dissemination of international messages to the domestic populace, but the “Smith-Mundt Modernization Act”, an overhaul of the Smith-Mundt act that in 1948 founded most of the6 Walton, “What Is Propaganda, and What Exactly Is Wrong with It.”, 388.7 Mull and Wallin, “Propaganda.”, 3.international efforts used in United States influence, removed most if not all of the restrictions laid out in previous amendments.8Similar to U.S. history, China’s past is enshrouded in propaganda, but unlike the United States, China’s history goes back millenia. However, unlike in the United States China has been uniquely primed to incorporate much more propaganda and censorship into the lives of its citizens, as explored in an essay titled “The Historical Roots of Chinese Communist Propaganda” by Michael McCarty. For the vast majority of Chinese history the emperor was worshipped as a nearly religious figure. This undying loyalty emperors in China cultivated over centuries translated well to other charismatic, authoritarian leaders such as Mao Zedong and more recently Xi Jinping. The idea of censorship and the presentation of strength so central to how history was written, that it led to times where even the wishes of the emperor were censored or ignored in favor of a stronger narrative for the nation. It does not take much analysis to understand therefore, that there has never been a free domestic press in China. During imperial times information was controlled by the emperor and the capital, in our more modern times, the Communist Party has nigh-absolute control over the narrative it presents to its citizens and the international community. Even during the republican period of China, the individual warlords and minor states that made up the geography of modern China had complete determination as to what information was given to the people and what was hidden.9 Moving into the last decade orso propaganda encompasses nearly every medium of information dissemination in China. DavidShambaugh wrote in his essay titled “China's Propaganda System: Institutions, Processes and Efficacy” about some of the unique aspects of this system. The first was his description of8 Mull and Wallin, “Propaganda.”, 4-6.9 McCarty, “The Historical Roots of Chinese Communist Propaganda.”self-censorship. The unspoken rules of censorship are poked and prodded by those in the media but they would never outright go against what censors instruct them to discuss. He then goes into a discussion on the idea of “proactive propaganda”, something very different from censorship.This much more common form of propaganda is an aspirational selection of information that is pushed towards the public. While each department of the Chinese government has initiatives and propaganda throughout their goings-on, the central group over information and messaging is the CCPPD or the “Central Publicity Department” in English, a group that is directly under the central committee, further showing their centrality and importance to Chinese governance.10This brings us to the pandemic raging through the world this year. Matthias Rogg wrote in his report titled “COVID-19 The Pandemic and its Impact on Security Policy” that for many the fight against Covid-19 “feels like war”11 and he’s not exactly wrong. John HopkinsUniversity, USA Today, and the New York Times have all reported on the state of the fatalities due to the pandemic from March, until the time of this essay at the end of August. The current death count due to Covid-19 in the U.S. is around 185,000 and around the world the number of fatalities is nearly 900,000.12 Just the U.S. deaths from Covid-19 are higher than U.S. fatalities inthe Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined, and beyond that, it has beenreported that there have been around 60,000 excess deaths around the country not directly related to the pandemic, an indicator on how the disruption of public health services damages not just those affected directly by it, but everyone.1314 There is a uniqueness to this pandemic though,there is no visible enemy yet somebody must be to blame. The New York Times reported that10 Shambaugh, “China’s Propaganda System.”, 27-34.11 Rogg, “COVID-19.”, 55.12 “COVID-19 Map.”13 Brown, “Fact Check.”14 Katz, Lu, and Sanger-Katz, “Tracking the Real Coronavirus Death Toll in the United States.”“Russia, China and activists will use the infodemic as a weapon” in an opinion piece written by Vera Zakem.15 While looking for contemporary demonstrations of how people thought groupswere using propaganda I stumbled upon two very different articles in content, that employed many of the same techniques to critique the “propaganda” of their political opponents. The first was a piece written by Dan Blumenthal for the conservative think tank “American Enterprise Institute” about China’s use of censorship and propaganda regarding the Coronavirus.16 Thesecond was an article written by Ryan Cooper for the liberal news outlet “The Week” about how the Conservative Party’s propaganda had crippled the response of the United States government.17 While both were on completely opposing views on where the blame of Covid-19 should beplaced, they both utilized the wide emotional response to the word propaganda in an attempt to pre-emptively undermine any response the other side could make. As far as recent information dissemination and soft power campaigns from national governments, China attempted to increase its international standing by sending medical supplies and aid throughout the world after it had successfully suppressed the virus. However, their missteps early on in the pandemic regarding censorship and a lack of transparency, as well as faulty equipment, kept them from fully capitalizing on the moment.18 In a direct challenge to a free international press China initiated aremoval of several foreign journalists and media groups that were reporting on issues like Hong Kong in a way that wasn’t in line with the party message. In response to this the United States classified several Chinese news sources as missions, drastically reducing their ability to report onU.S. events.19 Throughout this year, with so many borders closed, and so many people finding15 Zakem, “Opinion | Pandemic Propaganda Is Coming. Be Ready for It.”16 Blumenthal, “China’s Censorship, Propaganda & Disinformation | AEI.”17 Cooper, “Conservative Propaganda Has Crippled the U.S. Coronavirus Response.”18 CIMMINO, KROENIG, and PAVEL, “Taking Stock.”, 2.19 CIMMINO, KROENIG, and PAVEL, “Taking Stock.”, 8.themselves isolated at home, the fight for attention and influence in domestic and international spheres rages on more fiercely than ever.In conclusion, propaganda is a constant, ever adapting reality in our modern world. While its definition has strayed far from its origins in the Catholic church, the addition of more specific terms has allowed the nuance of information dissemination to be better represented and understood in the English language. Now it is up to us to be aware of these terms, the difference between them, and the danger of utilizing emotionally charged words like propaganda superfluously.BibliographyBlumenthal, Dan. “China’s Censorship, Propaganda & Disinformation | AEI.” American Enterprise Institute - AEI (blog). Accessed September 1, 2020. , Matthew. “Fact Check: Coronavirus Deaths Surpass Combined Battle Fatalities in Several US Wars.” USA TODAY. Accessed August 31, 2020. aths-surpass-combat-fatalities-many-wars/5535450002/.Casey, Ralph D. “Defining Propaganda I | AHA.” Accessed September 1, 2020. dtable-series/pamphlets/em-2-what-is-propaganda-(1944)/defining-propaganda-i.———. “EM 2: What Is Propaganda? (1944) | AHA,” July 1944. dtable-series/pamphlets/em-2-what-is-propaganda-(1944).CIMMINO, JEFFREY, MATTHEW KROENIG, and BARRY PAVEL. “Taking Stock::Where Are Geopolitics Headed in the COVID-19 Era?” Atlantic Council, 2020. JSTOR. , Ryan. “Conservative Propaganda Has Crippled the U.S. Coronavirus Response,” July 30, 2020. ponse.Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. “COVID-19 Map.” Accessed August 31, 2020. , Guy Stanton. “Foreword to the Bound Edition of the Pamphlets | AHA,” May 1946. dtable-series/background/foreword.NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY. “Issue Brief: Distinguishing Disinformation from Propaganda, Misinformation, and ‘Fake News,’” October 17, 2017. ormation-and-fake-news/.Katz, Josh, Denise Lu, and Margot Sanger-Katz. “Tracking the Real Coronavirus Death Toll in the United States.” The New York Times, sec. U.S. Accessed August 31, 2020. , Michael. “The Historical Roots of Chinese Communist Propaganda.” The Pulse | Baylor University. Accessed September 1, 2020. , Vanessa, and Renee DiResta. “Pandemics & Propaganda: How Chinese State Media Creates and Propagates CCP Coronavirus Narratives.” Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review 1, no. 3 (June 8, 2020). , Christian, and Matthew Wallin. “Propaganda:: A Tool of Strategic Influence.” American Security Project, 2013. JSTOR. , Matthias. “COVID-19: The Pandemic and Its Impact on Security Policy.” PRISM 8, no. 4 (2020): 54–67. , David. “China’s Propaganda System: Institutions, Processes and Efficacy.” The China Journal, no. 57 (2007): 25–58. , Douglas. “What Is Propaganda, and What Exactly Is Wrong with It.” Public Affairs Quarterly 11, no. 4 (October 1997): 383–413.Zakem, Vera. “Opinion | Pandemic Propaganda Is Coming. Be Ready for It.” The New York Times, April 22, 2020, sec. Opinion. . ................
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