I've wanted for a long time to write about how both the "China is a revisionist power" and "China is a defensive power" camps don't focus enough on the disconnect between China's self-perception and its behavior.
Thanks to
@thediplomat.com .
thediplomat.com/2026/03/chin...
Good point!
What does this "China first" attitude mean for EU-China relations?
What can Europeans do to get China to take the European perspective seriously?
I genuinely don't know!
And he's saying all this in just the most patronizing tone.
I wonder if this is how he would talk to Europeans ๐ค.
The interview, on CHINA NOW, for those who are interested and understand Chinese:
tinyurl.com/yranr35t
7/n
The only solution for Europe (clearly) is making friends with China and greater participation in China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Europe "is reliant on China's tech"...but clearly not reliant enough!
6/n
Europe foolishly let America "instigate" a war in Ukraine.
They let America divide Eastern and Western Europe.
And Europeans even played along with the American left's "silly game of cultural diversity." 5/n
Europe has to "accept" that it's now a second-tier player. It's far behind China in tech, and even development!
4/n
Europe is a "puppet" of America, a โvassal" state.
Don't they realize they need to maintain good relations with Russia?
Only China can see EU interests clearly ๐ 3/n
Apparently Europe has had zero ability to act autonomously or pursue its own interests in the last 20 years.
Evidence: Europe's positive relations with America 2/n
Do Europeans realize how condenscending China's elites are about them?
I'm watching a Fudan professor on state TV give a talk about EU-China relations and...oh boy is it bad 1/n
Even if professors established a dictatorship in the classroom, students still wouldn't do the readings....
jamestown.org/program/nobo...
Are they NGOs or CCP operatives?
A good example of how the CCP hides its influence over an organization through giving it a dual identity...
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
I'm pleased to share this new article with co-author Zhu Zhang about why China's ruling institutions often operate with dual identities.
We coin the term "institutional doubling."
This one is for the real China governance nerds!
@jcca-gigahamburg.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Join @stevelevitsky.bsky.social & me on April 3 at 4pm ET. Weโll catch up on the current state of backsliding and resistance in the US. Register below.
There's a lot more, including juicy examples of some of the People's Daily's meanest slams of America, all in our article...
Please read if interested and thank you:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
We can call this "relative legitimacy": This government is better than some alternative, as defined by the regime. Keep supporting me because I'm better than
a. the previous regime
b. the rival foreign power
c. what would happen if I were toppled
The CCP is leaning on this kind of legitimacy...
Scholars have often argued China relies on "performance legitimacy"... true! But performance isn't just objective, it's also relative.
Anti-American messaging helps the CCP say that its rule is better by comparison, better than the best alternative...
The US is a hegemon, whereas China is a "responsible great power" winning hearts and minds...
The US fails its people because it doesn't care, whereas China takes care of its people, besting Covid and keeping order!
The US is in decline, whereas China...
And at home, saying America is a hegemon, a moral vacuum, and a declining power isn't just for rallying Chinese against America. It's also a strategy to get them to see their own government more positively
Showing American flaws to highlight CCP wins...
US policymakers should also understand that its these same negative stories of America that the CCP is spreading all over the world.
The party is literally taking and tailoring anti-US propaganda to fit local contexts as a key part of its global information strategy...
Imagine if you're a Chinese citizen and that's the story of America you are getting. You'd be pissed! Would you want your government to back down from this bully?
Of course not!
...
We have to understand that the CCP is telling its people a story to prepare them for US-China conflict.
The story says that the US is the revisionist power, not China.
It says that the US is lashing out at China because it is in decline and fears China's peaceful rise...
How's that for a rebuttal to the common PRC complaint that American media's coverage of China is biased?
But our essay isn't a "gotcha"โthese findings potentially matter for US policy...
These days, these narratives permeate the CCP's discussion of nearly everything about America.
Between 2019 and 2022, more than 90% of People's Daily editorials about America promoted at least one of these stories...
Sound familiar? Of course!
None of these narratives is new.
But they've all been promoted MUCH more aggressively since around 2018โ2019, when US-China relations began to tank...
Basically, there are three stories the CCP has about America, all negative:
1. The US is a dangerous hegemon that bullies other countries, especially China.
2. The US is a morally weak society that doesn't take care of its people and isn't a model.
3. The US is in decline at home and abroad...
What does the CCP say about America to its citizens? A thread based on my new study with Joshua Freedman ๐
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Analysing 1,761 editorials about the US published between 2003โ2022 in People's Daily,
@chriscarothers.bsky.social & Joshua B. Freedman investigate CCP messaging about the US in the contemporary era.
doi.org/10.1017/S0305741024001528
Sichuan pavilion or Wosai
