Chapter 1 Introduction
1.5 Literature Review
1.5.1 Global Accusation Against China’s Sharp Power
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further conduct self-censorship, curb free speech and academic freedom, or infringe free well to comply with specific utterances, statements and even force others to obey.
There are also many cases in the cultural and academic spheres that have received attention and vigilance worldwide. For instance, as mentioned in the chapter “Research background”, the Confucius Institutes established in many universities is regarded as concrete illustration of sharp power operation. In the recent year, Australia and the U.S.
have continued to expose Confucius Institutes established in various universities through endowing with subsidies and donations. Ostensibly claiming to engage in Chinese cultural education research, but what it conceals behind is that China uses economic means to interfere with academic freedom, thus causing awareness and rebound from the academic circles. There have been many cases in which universities have closed Confucius Institutes.
The U.S. Congress also proposed to include Confucius Institutes as the registration scope in the Foreign Agents Registration Act (國外代理人登記法).
Although there are research limitations due to the lacks of academic discussion with regard to China’s sharp power influences, it is still quite essential to understand and prevent China’s sharp power through observation of relevant cases analysis and induction. The author hopes to make the readers better understand and evaluate the impacts by organizing the arguments of both sides into the following two standpoints:
(1) Global accusation against China’s sharp power;
(2) The response of the Chinese Communist Party.
1.5.1 Global Accusation Against China’s Sharp Power
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After sharp power has been exposed, it caused international countermeasures, launch investigations, publicly condemned and enacted new laws to strengthen democratic institutions. Countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have repeatedly exposed cases of Chinese government funding, attempting to bribe and affect politics, universities, think tanks, and corporations. As the Economist claims — “even if China does not seek to conquer foreign lands, many people fear that it seeks to conquer foreign minds”
(Economist, 2017a, p.9). China’s sharp power is now influencing the world, in many countries and many fields.
For countries, Australia was the first country to accuse China of interfering Australian politics, universities, and publishing, which causes the government to enact new laws to prohibit “foreign influence”. An Australian senator as the opposition party’s spokesman has accused of taking money from China and try to defend China’s side of the argument.
Sam Dastyari, former federal Labor senator resigned over a scandal of taking money from a Chinese business figure, Huang Xiangmo, who has apparent links to the PRC, at the same time contradicting the policy of both the government and his own party, urging the government to “respect” China’s territorial claims in the south China Sea (Economist, 2017b, p.17). Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull publicly denounced the Chinese Communist Party for interfering in Australia’s internal affairs and announced the new Anti-Espionage Law and Anti-Foreign Intervention Act in December 2017 to prevent China's further penetration. “The new legislation banning political donations from non-citizens and requiring political lobbyists to reveal if they are working for foreigners”
(Economist, 2017b, p.17). In the academy, criticism of China is not appeared in the conferences, and academic research topics try to avoid Chinese sensitive issues. The
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problem facing the academic world is that if you say too much criticism about China, you will not be able to visit China and lose some sense of existence (Economist, 2017a, p.9).
Since China’s influence in terms of economic, political, and cultural are substantial, it causes huge pressure upon the West. A book named: Silent Invasion: How China Is Turning Australia into a Puppet State, highlighting the tensions between Australia’s growing economic dependence on China and its fears of falling under the political control of the rising Asian superpower, its publisher postponed the release saying it was worried about the lawsuits. In New Zealand, a member of parliament had taught at a Chinese spy college for years, but he left this information off his CV when he later applied for citizenship. This incident later alarms the government to put more scrutiny of China’s influence in terms of the Chinese diaspora (Economist, 2017b, p.17).
In Europe, Germany also accused China of trying to tend on politicians and bureaucrats by arranging recruiters and think-tankers on LinkedIn to lure politicians and government officials by providing free trips (Economist, 2017a, p.9). Peter Mattis from The Jamestown Foundation, argues that many of these institutions in the West eager for cash, it is gradually considered “normalized” to take money from the Chinese institutions which have party link with the PRC. Chinese money is criticized for buying influences in politics, in the ways of party donations or payments to an individual politician. Norway was economically “punished” by China because it awards a Nobel peace prize to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese pro-democracy activist. China indicates that “conferring the prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award, it is a blasphemy of the peace prize”
(Tom Phillips, 2017). As the Economist (2017a, p.9) mentioned, “sharp power helps authoritarian regimes coerce and manipulate opinion abroad”.
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“China has made foreign companies continued access to its domestic market conditional on their compliance with Beijing’s stance on Taiwan and Tibet” (Chinese Influence & American Interests, 2018, p.4). For instance, Springer Nature, the world’s largest academic book publisher, which has removed more than 1,000 articles from its Chinese Journal of Chinese Political Science and International Politics on the Chinese website in order to comply with China's censorship directions. All of the articles in question contained keywords deemed political sensitive by the Chinese authorities, including
“Taiwan”, “Tibet”, “Tiananmen”, “Falun gong” and “Cultural Revolution”. After receiving the reward from China, the publisher got the opportunity to sign a profitable strategic partnership with Chinese technology giant Tencent (The Long Arm of China, 2017, p.48). Another case of interfering academic freedom that caused a strong rebound was that in 2017, Cambridge University Press (CUP) succumbed to GAPP (General Administration of Press and Publication [of China]), removing more than 300 papers and books review from its important publication— China Quarterly. According to the news report, there are a lot of donations from the Chinese side. The case caused thousands of authors of the journal to jointly protest, later the University of Cambridge decided to withdraw the decision. Tim Pringle, the editor from the China Quarterly states that “we are deeply concerned and disappointed by the removal of more than 300 articles and books review by the Chinese importer. We would also like to point out that this practice of restricting academic freedom is not the only isolated measure, but a policy of restricting pubic participation in the discussion space throughout the Chinese society” （中國季刊：
對中國刪 300 多篇文章深表關注，2017）. In September 2018, Taylor & Francis Group, an international publisher originating in England has removed 83 journals at the request of
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the Chinese government, including “The Journal of Asian Studies”, which is regarded by the authorities as “inappropriate” content. According to the report, Beijing authorities began to use commercial influence to pressure foreign academic publishers to call for the removal of “sensitive content” （翟思嘉、楊昇儒，2018）.
A superpower like the United States also cannot avoid the impact of China’s sharp power. “In American federal and state politics, China seeks to identify and cultivate rising politicians. Like many other countries, Chinese entities employ prominent lobbying and public relations firms and cooperate with influential civil society groups. These activities complement China’s long-standing support of visits to China by members of Congress and their staffs. In some rare instances, China has used private citizens and/or companies to exploit loopholes in U.S. regulations that prohibit direct foreign contributions to elections”
(Chinese Influence &American Interests, 2018, p.4). Although the United States has not set a new National Security Law to prevent China's infiltration, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) has held the hearing: The Long Arm of China:
Exporting Authoritarianism with Chinese Characteristics in December 2017. Senator Marco Rubio blames China’s overseas penetration threatens the core values of democratic countries, accusing China has extended its omnipresent “long arm” and stealthily exported authoritarianism with Chinese characteristics. He also expressed the frustration that policymakers and business leaders seem pretending to be naive while China arose subtle attacks on academic independence and free expression, also for American firms or universities have partnership with China is dazzled by the size of the Chinese market.
Nonetheless, the committee is mulling new legislative and a resolute way to fight back.
China awarded to companies and individuals who comply with the rules of the Chinese
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government. Hollywood was also affected by China and had to put a film scripts on hold because it contained a storyline involving China’s abuse of the Tibetan people (The Long Arm of China, 2017, p.3).
In Argentina, according to Juan Pablo (2017, pp.41-42), there are power struggles among political elites. A Chinese-born businessman, Yuan Jian Ping, known as Fernando Yuan was elected in 2015 to the Buenos Aires city legislature under PRO (Propuesta Republicana) party list. He was an enigmatic case since he speaks little Spanish, does not give interview except to Chinese media, no one knew much about his background in the local policy community, and only his business achievements were discussed. This is regarded as China’s influence abroad through the political mobilization of the overseas Chinese. “In fact, Beijing’s support for ethnic-Chinese candidates abroad is not new and was referred to as an area ‘for further development’ in internal Chinese official documents more than a decade ago”. In the media aspect, China has invited journalists to participate in trainings in China, promoting partnerships with national television network which may have higher willingness to broadcast Chinese-produced content. “They have also been successful in inserting the China Watch supplement regularly into several local media outlets. This supplement is nothing more than paid content produced by the official Chinese state media”.
For the fields that has been influence by China’s sharp power, in business, “China often uses its companies to advance strategic objectives abroad, gaining political influence and access to critical infrastructure and technology” (Chinese Influence & American Interests, 2018, p.4). The U.S. Commerce Department announced on May 15, 2019 that Huawei Technologies Co. and its 70 affiliates were included in the trade blacklist,
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prohibiting Huawei from purchasing components from U.S. companies without the approval of the Washington authorities. U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order, pointing to the United States is facing foreign threats in terms of communications infrastructure and services, and U.S. companies are not allowed to trade information technology and services that may threaten homeland security（郭妍希， 2019）.
As Walker and Ludwig (2017, p.15) suggest that the Confucius Institutes, which are built on university campuses around the world, teaching Chinese and calligraphy. They seem to be harmless, but their activities clearly support the CCP’s political proposition. On university campus, Confucius Institutes provide the Chinese government access to U.S.
student communities. “With the direct support of the Chinese embassy and consulates, Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs) sometimes report on and compromise the academic freedom of other Chinese students and American faculty on American campus” (Chinese Influence & American Interests, 2018, p.4). Universities and government that organize events assumed as politically offensive by the CCP have been subject to increasing pressure. And the CCP sometimes even retaliated via diplomates in the Chinese embassy and its six consulates as well as by CSSA branches.
At think tanks, there have been many attempts by Chinese diplomates and other intermediaries (power holder) to influence activities by researchers, scholars, and other staffers within the United States. CCP is also intensifying covert influence operations that include funding Washington think tanks and coercing Chinese Americans. According to the report, Johns Hopkins School of Advance International Studies, a major foreign policy education and analysis institute, has received funding from Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), a vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the party group
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that directs the Unites Front Work Department and includes a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the collective dictatorship that rules China (Bowe, 2018, p.15). Clear to be seen that “China has begun to establish its own network of think tanks in the U.S., it also restrains the access to China and to Chinese officials of American think-tanks researchers and delegations” (Chinese Influence &American Interests, 2018, p.4).
In media, the scale of Grand Overseas Propaganda Campaign (大外宣) has been glorious, “with Chinese sources reporting hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on a multitude of projects designed to bolster China’s image” (Chinese Influence &American Interests, 2018, p.81). One of the most significant example of state-own media expansion is Xinhua News Agency. In the United States, the number of Xinhua bureaus have doubled, and its stationary points have diffused in many big states such as Chicago, Huston, San Francisco, Washington, New York, and Lok Angeles. It also recruits local talent to work for the cause and it began a TV broadcast in English since 2009. China Central Television (CCTV), renamed as China Global Television Network (GCTN) in 2012, is another example of the effort to grab the right to speak. “In 2004 it cooperated with EchoStar, America’s second-largest TV company, to launch the Chinese ‘Great Wall Platform’, including twelve Mandarin channels, two Cantonese channels, one Hokkien channel, and one English Channel, and in 2012, it was broadcasting in seven languages” (Chinese Influence &American Interests, 2018, p.82). Chinese investment in the U.S. media market is not limited to the central government. Chinese provincial company also have footprint in the United States, such as Sky Link TV. Chinese investment not only appeared in the satellite Television but radio, newspaper, and online news. Even the mobile application,
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WeChat is another source of news within the Chinese American community, because it examines and censor news and comments in accordance with rules set by CCP.
In 2016, Xi Jinping said in the Congress of the Republic of Peru that by 2019, China would provide training opportunities for 10,000 South Americans. He also mentioned on the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation 2015 (FOCAC) that 100,000 training places will be provided to Asian and African developing countries within five years. These so-called
“training” are not simply training but take the opportunity to contact elites in various fields that can exert influence in the future, such as opinion leaders, policy makers, parliamentarians, political party members or former diplomats. As Cardenal (2017, p.68) indicates:
Beijing is also trying to recruit Peru’s ethnic Chinese population, one of the oldest and largest in Latin America, the first are those who maintain Chinese citizenship and, therefore, have stronger, more direct ties to China; this group includes the descendants of the workers of Cantonese origin who migrated to Peru after 1849, as well as the so-called new migrants—mostly from Fujian province—who have been flowing into the country since the 1980s. The second group are Peruvian citizens born in the country with mixed Peruvian-Chinese ancestry, locally known as Tusan. The Chinese government regards overseas Chinese—whether they are PRC nationals or Peruvian citizens of Chinese ethnicity—as national assets that can be leveraged to support China’s integration with the world, serve as a lobby against Taiwan’s independence, and act as soft power promoters of Chinese pride and culture.
This approach is equivalent to the one conducted in the United States. China has long sought to influence, muted critical voice of CCP or supportive argument of Taiwan by dispatching personnel to the U.S. to pressure these individuals while also pressuring their relatives in China. “Beijing also views Chinese Americans as members of a worldwide Chinese diaspora that presume them to retain not only an interest in the welfare of China
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but also a loosely defined cultural, and even political, allegiance to the so-called Motherland” (Chinese Influence &American Interests, 2018, p.5).
China really has power as an economic development model, an analysis China’s Trillion-Dollar Sharp Power Play by The Sydney Morning Herald, Bachelard (2018) indicates that “after China pledged $US3 billion in low-interest loans and financing for highway and railway projects in the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean nation announced that, after 77 years of recognizing self-ruled Taiwan, it was switching its allegiance to China”. “China is also courting the Pacific Island nations with aid and infrastructure. It has built 27 projects in Papua New Guinea, worth $858 million, over the past decade. Fiji president Frank Bainimarama received high-level treatment last year, meeting Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, who encouraged more Chinese tourists to visit Fiji. A few days later, Fiji closed its trade office in Taiwan”.
To conclude this section, China has employed its state power to further restrict on the academic space, business, politics, and media. It is worth noting that (1) When commercial institutions rely on Chinese market massively to make money, it is often difficult to refuse such censorship requirement; (2) The most serious consequence of such censor mechanism is that it brings a lot of uncertainty, deterring researchers, educators and students from conducting in relevant research or obtaining relevant information. Simultaneously, causing more people to start “self-censorship” and trigger a chain of Chilling Effect; (3) In the past, in the process of democratization or liberalization of many authoritarian countries, the pressure from the major Western Powers is the most influential reason for opening up prohibition and promoting civil rights protection. For example, the Chiang Ching-kuo regime in Taiwan was forced to open up the ban on party, press, and martial law under the
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pressure of the United States. However, nowadays almost no country has the will or ability to exert pressure upon China, or in another word, China does not concern the threats from the West.
There are even more cases and allegations in the international arena regarding the devastating Chinese sharp power. The author gives examples of more striking actual cases for the readers to better understand that Chinese sharp power is far beyond our imagination.
As can be seen from the above discussion, Chinese sharp power through its influence on the economic and trade market, the right to work, and even the security of life. That is, the comprehensive power of the authoritarian state, publicly or non-publicly exert pressure, to influence specific targets, succumb others or self-censorship, and achieve the goal of manipulation and influence public opinion. Its scope not only includes politics, economics, academics, technology sector, human rights, freedom of speech, which are closely related to our life but also threatens democracy and national security.