The laws of the playground: Information warfare and propaganda across the Taiwan Strait

The Taiwan Strait2 is, together with the Korean Demilitarised Zone (another leftover from the Cold War) one of the twenty-first century’s most dangerous political and military hotspots. Taipei and Beijing are preparing for war against each other – Taiwan to maintain its democratic status and resist absorption into the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing to fulfil its manifest destiny of unifying China once and for all and to repel any moves towards de jure independence by the ‘renegade province’ Taiwan. China and Taiwan use annual military exercises to simulate the war that each is trying to avoid in the Strait; China has over 600 missiles in Fujian province pointed at the island, while the May 2007 Han Kuang 23 exercise revealed that Taiwan has developed its own offensive military capacity to attack targets on the Chinese mainland. Further, both sides are also compelled to consider the role of the United States that recognises but one China and calls for a peaceful settlement to the Taiwan issue, but also acknowledges Taiwan’s right to defend itself in the event of attack by its neighbour. The Seventh Fleet, America’s naval presence in the Pacific, has been used on more than one occasion to send a symbolic message to Beijing and Taipei that conflict will not be tolerated and that the US is prepared to intervene in the eventuality of war in the Taiwan Strait. So, given the apparent attention to conventional military hardware and strategies, what role does information warfare play

Believe me: Political propaganda in the age of Trump

President Trump called on his listeners to believe him, his use of this epistrophe revealing a need to emphasise his credentials and experience. Trump was president in a post-truth environment, characterised by claims of 'alternative facts' and 'fake news', circulating faster than ever before through social media networks and distributed by a 'mainstream media' that exists in a symbiotic relationship with both the political culture and the information found on social media platforms. Using the framework offered by the Seven Propaganda Devices, first categorised by the Institute of Propaganda Analysis in 1937, this chapter analyses the 'weaponisation' of information by President Trump and his administration and their war on the media, concluding that news journalism in America is as responsible for the rise of Trump as the voters who elected him. © Gary D. Rawnsley, Yiben Ma and Kruakae Pothong 2021. All rights reserved

Communicating Confidence: China’s Public Diplomacy

This chapter assesses how public diplomacy reflects the rapid political, social, and economic changes in China. In particular, the ascendancy of President Xi Jinping, mega-events such as the Shanghai Expo in 2010, the launch of such programmes as the Belt and Road Initiative—reviving the ancient Silk Roads—and a more nationalistic political agenda around the “China Dream” have grown China’s confidence. China’s public diplomacy continues to receive extraordinary levels of investment, while restructuring of its public diplomacy architecture in 2018 created the Voice of China under more centralized control by the Communist Party, all designed to challenge the alleged distorted picture of China overseas. At the same time, the international community remains critical of China’s behavior both at home and overseas, with reports documenting human rights abuses and regular intimidation of Taiwan and Hong Kong. China’s public diplomacy must learn how to square its ambition, confidence, and its desire to reverse a “distorted” picture in the West with the more questionable character of Communist Party rule

Global Chinese Cinema: The Culture and Politics of 'Hero'

The film Hero, directed by Zhang Yimou and released in 2002, is widely regarded as the first globally successful indigenous Chinese blockbuster. A big expensive film with multiple stars, spectacular scenery, and astonishing action sequences, it touched on key questions of Chinese culture, nation and politics, and was both a domestic sensation and an international hit. This book explores the reasons for the film's popularity with its audiences, discussing the factors which so resonated with those who watched the film. It examines questions such as Chinese national unity, the search for cultural identity and role models from China's illustrious pre-communist past, and the portrayal of political and aesthetic values, and attitudes to gender, sex, love, and violence which are relatively new to China. The book demonstrates how the film, and China's growing film industry more generally, have in fact very strong international connections, with Western as well as Chinese financing, stars recruited from the East Asian region more widely, and extensive interactions between Hollywood and Asian artists and technicians. Overall, the book provides fascinating insights into recent developments in Chinese society, popular culture and cultural production. © 2010 Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley for selection an editorial matter

The Political Narrative(s) of Hero

A detailed reading of Zhang Yimou’s Hero reveals a multi-layered political discourse. The film addresses themes and issues that resonate with political meaning and imagery, and which have as much relevance to an analysis of modern China as to our understanding of the ancient period of the Warring States that forms the backdrop to the movie. This paper examines multiple themes, including (a) the philosophy and practice of power in Qin dynasty China (legalism; utilitarianism); (b) the question of narratives (who gets to tell the story? Whose version of history is legitimate and is accepted as such?); and (c) does the film accept that authoritarian control is a necessary evil, that it can serve order, peace, stability and prosperity

Old wine in new bottles: China-Taiwan computer-based 'information warfare' and propaganda

This article considers the operational utility of computer-based information warfare across the Taiwan Strait. It reviews the capacity of both the People's Republic of China and Taiwan to wage offensive and defensive information warfare, and acknowledges that both sides have invested and continue to invest considerable amounts of resources into developing their information warfare ability, both have taken part in the Revolution in Military Affairs process that has redefined military strategy in an age of high-technology warfare, and computer-based information warfare will serve as part of a broader military strategy that revolves principally around conventional methods of attack and deterrence. However, using a critical security approach the article suggests that the capacity to wage computer-based information warfare is currently limited, and plays more of a psychological role in the propaganda offensive that continues across the Taiwan Strait. Hence, computer-based information warfare is 'old wine in new bottles'

Reflections of a Soft Power Agnostic

As the title suggests, I am a self-confessed soft power agnostic, and I write this chapter from the intersection of international relations and international communications where I am progressively convinced that the term �soft power� is fast becoming a redundant and empty catch-all term that means everything and therefore nothing. The pace and scale of its adoption by governments and by colleagues within the academy has obscured our sensitivity to the concept�s utility. Moreover, it enjoys such a level of almost unquestioned credibility and prominence that we are now pressed to engage with the meaning, exercise, and value of soft power as a way of understanding modern international relations and statecraft from a far more critical perspective. A more satisfying and precise approach requires us to unpack the term so that its core components, including public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, international exchanges, and international broadcasting are used in the way they were designed to be used: as labels for distinct communicative practices, each with its own methods, objectives, audiences, and architectures. When used as an umbrella term, a mere convenience, the simple descriptor �soft power� fails to capture the nuances of each type of international engagement and their possible consequences. © 2016, Gary D. Rawnsley

Political Communications in Greater China

This book examines the role played by political communications, including media of all kinds - journalism, television, and film - in defining and shaping identity in Greater China; China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Chinese. In the context of increasing cross-border interactions of people, investment and commercial products between the component parts of greater China, the book explores the idea that identity, rather than nation-states or political entities, may be the key factor in achieving further integration in Greater China. The book focuses on the ways in which identity is communicated, and shows how communication of identity within and between the component parts of greater China plays a central role in bringing about integration

Political communications in greater China: The construction and reflection of identity

This book examines the role played by political communications, including media of all kinds - journalism, television, and film - in defining and shaping identity in Greater China; China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Chinese. In the context of increasing cross-border interactions of people, investment and commercial products between the component parts of greater China, the book explores the idea that identity, rather than nation-states or political entities, may be the key factor in achieving further integration in Greater China. The book focuses on the ways in which identity is communicated, and shows how communication of identity within and between the component parts of greater China plays a central role in bringing about integration. © 2003 Gary D.Rawnsley and Ming-Yeh T.Rawnsley. All rights reserved

Science communication in Taiwan: Rethinking the local and global

Taiwan has often been characterised as an isolated society in its search for sovereignty and security. Its contact with the world in an era of globalization and post-modernity, however, has increasingly led to Taiwanese actors successfully participating in many regional and global fields. In this book an international team of scholars presents cases studies and theoretical debates emphasising agency in coping with the effects of globalisation. In so doing, they contest the image of Taiwan’s marginalization and seek to understand it in terms of its connectedness, whether globally, regionally or trans-nationally. Taking a multi-disciplinary, comparative approach, it covers themes such as markets and trading, diplomacy and nation-branding, collective action, media, film and literature, and religious mission. It thus combines perspectives from several disciplines including media studies, sociology, political science, and studies in religion. Using Taiwan as an example of how to conceptualise connectivity and think differently about comparative studies, this book will be useful for students and scholars of Asian Politics and Cultural Studies, as well as of Taiwan Studies more specifically