Authoritarian Propaganda as Legitimation or Signaling? China's Propaganda on Overseas Citizen Protection

Lin (Kirin) Pu
Chia-Lin Kao
Shu-An Tsai

Prepared for discussion at the MPSA Annual Meeting, April 5th, 2024.

Discussion:

Discussant:

Karl Ho

University of Texas at Dallas

Summary

This paper provides a qualitative analysis of media reports in studying Chinese government propaganda strategies regarding overseas evacuation operations. 

  1. Well motivated paper on a very interesting topic: What prompts China's decision to evacuate and launch propaganda via media? And how?
  2. Crisis variable is underreported.  Actually under what situation or circumstances and what variables are determining when Chinese government decides to evacuate, then publicize or launch propaganda?
    1. Size of citizen population in other countries/area?
    2. Conflicts related vs. disaster related?
  3. Over time?
    1. How Xi's policy stands out compared to other administrations?
    2. Related to hawkish or "wolf-warrior" diplomacy?

 

 

Observations

Suggestions

  1. Compare across:
    1. Crises
    2. Regions (e.g. Africa, Asia) 
    3. Time
  2. Audience
    1. More insights from comparing Chinese and English and both media reports
      1. How such propaganda are appealing to different audiences (e.g. domestics vs. Taiwan vs. international)
  3. Expand Data Sources: Including social media and Google search data analyses could offer additional perspectives on how Chinese propaganda is disseminated and received by the public, especially among younger demographics.

Suggestions

  1. Longitudinal Impact Study

    The authors state "we discern a trend where Chinese media increasingly spotlight instances such as China's 2011 Libya evacuation mission to showcase the state's efficacy in safeguarding its citizens beyond its borders during periods of non-crisis.

    Some data exposition? Chart or timeline?

Suggestions

  1. More content analyses on reports
    • Are these reports getting more structured or driven by certain agenda? Build dictionary for further analysis targeting more data collection?
    • Human coding in classifying internal/external attraction/distraction?

Discussion: MPSA 2024 Tsai et al. Authoritarian Propaganda as Legitimation or Signaling? China's Propaganda on Overseas Citizen Protection

By Karl Ho

Discussion: MPSA 2024 Tsai et al. Authoritarian Propaganda as Legitimation or Signaling? China's Propaganda on Overseas Citizen Protection

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