China and Russia attack “so-called” Biden Democracy Summit

(CNN) – The state media of China and Russia are working at full speed to denigrate the Summit for Democracy – an initiative of the president of the United States, Joe Biden -, which is being held this week, calling the project hypocritical.

A flurry of tweets from Chinese diplomats refer to the event as a “supposed” summit for democracy, while a Russian political commentator, writing in a Chinese state newspaper, compared the US initiative to “a mistress of a brothel that teaches morals [sic] to the schoolgirls “.

The fact that the media bombardment is coming from official spokespersons – and not from dark bots and trolls – reflects anxiety over US efforts to build support for democratic norms and potentially isolate Bejing and Moscow in the process, authoritarian propaganda experts tell CNN.

“China and Russia see this as an opportunity to exacerbate cynicism in the West and undermine any headlines coming out of this summit,” said Jessica Brandt, Policy Director for the Emerging Technology and Artificial Intelligence Initiative at the Brookings Institution.

An alternative view

According to analysts, this is a well-known maneuver, the kind of influence operation the US will likely have to grapple with for years as it competes with repressive governments to shape global views on governance.

“We are witnessing a really concerted effort [por parte de China] to undermine American democracy and present an alternative vision, “said Kenton Thibaut, a China-based researcher at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Laboratory.

The Summit for Democracy is one of the Biden Administration’s most prominent efforts to promote democratic norms. The conference will feature virtual meetings this Thursday and Friday, and will be attended by representatives of 100 governments, along with civil society groups and journalists, according to the White House.

“We approach this week with humility and confidence. Humility in the sense that we want to listen and learn and not shy away from our shortcomings; confidence in our constant effort for a more perfect union,” said the Deputy Secretary of State for Civil Security on Tuesday. , Democracy and Human Rights, Uzra Zeya.

The Biden administration plans to use the summit to announce new initiatives to fight corruption and defend free and fair elections, a senior administration official told reporters. Expressly invited Taiwan to participate.

Chinese and Russian officials are trying to undermine Biden’s message

Over the weekend, China held its own International Virtual Forum on Democracy, allegedly joined by politicians and academics from more than 120 countries, and published a white paper in which it was falsely asserts that its one-party system is a better-functioning democracy than the US system.

The Chinese and Russian ambassadors to the United States denounced the summit as “undemocratic” in a joint opinion piece published in late November by the US magazine The National Interest. Chinese and Russian diplomats falsely referred to their countries as democracies.

Bret Schafer, principal investigator tracking disinformation at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, said that “democracy” has been the most popular hashtag on Twitter for Chinese diplomatic and other government accounts in the last week.

“It has really been a priority as a topic [para China] for weeks, “Schafer told CNN.

When asked how the Biden government could counter the Russian and Chinese narratives around the summit, a senior administration official said: “Today, many autocratic governments promote the falsehood that only by restricting the actions of citizens societies can guarantee prosperity and security. Nothing could be further from the truth. “

What is China looking for?

Despite China’s authoritarian political system and well-documented human rights violations, the country’s propagandists see promoting Chinese notions of governance as a path to legitimacy on the world stage, Thibaut said.

“This is very much in line with what China has tried to do in the past two years, which is to redefine certain concepts on the world stage, including human rights and democracy,” he told CNN.

Some experts hope that the summit will bring tangible measures to combat the damage that disinformation causes in democracies by spreading lies about elections or the coronavirus.

Nina Jankowicz, a researcher at the Wilson Center, urged the Biden administration to support an alliance to counter anti-democratic disinformation driven by China, Russia and other countries.

“Disinformation, from both foreign actors and domestic sources, is threatening the foundations of democracies around the world and plays a major role in many of the world’s crises,” Jankowicz told CNN. “It is important that the Biden Administration emphasize that truth is a cornerstone of both the Biden era and the democratic community it hopes to build.”