How China Manipulates the Media to ‘Tell China’s Story well’
Gunjan Singh
BEIJING’S GLOBAL MEDIA OFFENSIVE: CHINA’S UNEVEN CAMPAIGN TO INFLUENCE ASIA AND THE WORLD by By Joshua Kurlantzick Oxford University Press (South Asia Edition), 2023, 272 pp., £ 26.49
May 2024, volume 48, No 5

In today’s interconnected and technologically driven world, media plays a very crucial role in shaping global narratives. Media holds the capacity to mould and tarnish images. With easy access to information with the help of internet and portable devices, news dissipation and consumption have become fast. No surprises then that governments are more concerned about how this reporting is undertaken domestically as well as globally. Today major media houses are in the process of producing news which is a 24-hour process. Media plays a very important part in strengthening nations’ soft power and narrative building.

Soft power has proven to be an elusive aspiration for Beijing. China has consistently invested in this and has hoped that it will be acknowledged as an important soft power holder globally. The desire for soft power has pushed China to look for creative ways to manipulate and exploit the global media. The book under review covers in great detail the efforts and methods adopted by China towards achieving its goal of influencing the world through the media. The author argues,

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