China has been using media outlets to expand its influence in Western societies and gain a greater voice in the international arena. A recent article by the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S. think tank, notes that one of China’s strategies has been to make “ad inserts” in prominent international newspapers and magazines, a form that has moved to online electronic media as the news media have become digital.
John Dotson, who authored the article, said Chinese official media have placed paid inserts in major U.S. newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, often using “China Watch,” “China Focus,” and “China News. China Watch” and “China Focus” are often used to advertise inserts that look like news and editorials, but are actually big foreign propaganda for China.
The article points out that this phenomenon is not only happening in the United States, but China is also expanding its influence in the European media, with the British Daily Telegraph, the French newspaper Le Figaro, and the German newspapers Handelsblatt and Süddeutsche Zeitung all running such China inserts. While the Süddeutsche Zeitung announced last May that it would stop publishing the “China Watch” supplement, and the Daily Telegraph announced that it would no longer run ads from China Daily, the official Chinese media, some Western media continue to run them and expand official Chinese ads into the electronic sphere.
The article mentions that while Chinese media have received attention in the West for their newspaper inserts, these propaganda tactics are less well known when they move into the electronic media, where they are likely to reach a wider audience through their big outreach. In addition, Chinese official media have also created alternative avenues for outreach, namely by establishing commercial partnerships with Western media companies and sponsoring their repackaged content for distribution through the U.S. news media.
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