Project description:

Since Xi Jinping came to power, he has emphasized the “national rejuvenation and Chinese dream”, adopting a tough approach towards Taiwan, actively expanding international influence through cultural, economic and social media campaigns. However, in recent years, China’s international image has been negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and debt crisis in Belt and Road countries. China has responded by increasing its presence on social media and using nationalism rhetoric to reduce internal governance conflicts.

Impact reached:

Faced with the threat of China, Taiwan must take a close look at every step and every move made by China.

Through this report, we analyze China’s international power deployment from the perspectives of economy, culture, and information warfare over the past decade. We see China’s attempt to gain a foothold in the international arena through its economic advantages, as well as its use of these advantages to spread its culture to other countries.

However, as the report also shows, these strategic infiltrations are gradually being recognized and guarded against by other countries. Meanwhile, information warfare is also on the rise. This is what Taiwan needs to pay attention to, not simply to view China’s advantages pessimistically, but also to be cautious about China’s next moves, especially in terms of awareness and information.

Techniques/technologies used:

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of China’s international strategies in three different areas: economic, cultural, and information warfare. In order to make the data easily accessible and understandable for readers, the article uses a technique of alternating between charts, data and text, allowing the readers to quickly navigate through different pieces of information and corresponding quotes, such as Kazakhs listed in China’s “golden aid” list and students of Confucius Institutes in Pakistan.

Context about the project:

Recenly research and analysis on China is abundant, and there are many excellent works among them. It is important how to use existing data to capture the research and analysis of China at this time point and bring enlightenment to the Taiwanese people.
As the war in Ukraine broke out in early 2022, Taiwanese cannot ignore the possibility of war. This report does not have too many complicated parts in terms of technology and tools. However, we have retrospectively reviewed China’s ambitions and the gradually failing parts of its layout, as well as its increasing control over the domestic and foreign, seeing China’s internal looseness. This is a warning and a variable that Taiwan needs to observe.As we said in “What was the impact of the project?” column, “this is what Taiwan needs to pay attention to, not simply to view China’s advantages pessimistically, but also to be cautious about China’s next moves, especially in terms of awareness and information.”

What can other journalists learn from this project?

This report compares different perspectives and sources of information, revealing China’s actions and ambitions over the years from different angles. This is a good thing, we found that in addition to building a country’s ambition map through data from the same field in the past, we can also see the relationship between trends in different fields in the same era or different eras, and see what we hope to tell readers.

Project links:

https://www.readr.tw/post/2916