Chinas sanfte Verkaufsmasche als Autokratie funktioniert: Und Amerikas Bemühungen, die Demokratie zu fördern, scheitern

[SS from essay by Daniel Mattingly, Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University.]

For decades, the United States has promoted democracy around the globe. But amid mounting U.S.-Chinese competition, a question has arisen: is Beijing attempting to export its authoritarian political system in a similar way? No, says Chinese leader Xi Jinping. “We do not seek to ‘export’ a China model,” he told an assembly of world leaders in 2017, “nor do we want other countries to ‘copy’ our way of doing things.” It would be a mistake, however, to think that Beijing is not seeking to shape global opinion in favor of China’s political system. The Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to promote autocracy are simply not as explicit as the United States’ hard-sell efforts to export democracy; instead, the CCP is soft-selling autocracy.

To that end, the party has invested heavily in public diplomacy and influence operations intended to make the global public more accepting of its nondemocratic political system. It has developed a far-reaching program of trainings, conferences, and workshops that teach CCP-style management of the press, Internet, military, and civil society to foreign political leaders. And despite a perception among some Western policymakers and academics that these efforts are tone deaf, China’s external influence operations are more sophisticated, effective, and likely to succeed over the long run than many in the West believe. They are aimed primarily at people in the developing world, where many see the so-called China model as effective at delivering what matters most to them: a path out of grinding poverty and into the global middle class.

well, well, well. will you look at that. it’s almost as supporting coups, overthrowing democratic governments, and supporting dictatorships isn’t good for global democracy. who could have thought?

apparently, the americans didn’t expect for their foreign policy to support dictatorships as long as they supported their interests to bite them later. my country egypt is one of those dictatorships and i can tell you public opinion about the usa is not good.