Chinese Global Influence Operations Target Democratic Institutions

The strat­e­gy of Chi­na’s glob­al influ­ence oper­a­tions is exposed in a new analy­sis detail­ing Bei­jing’s sys­tem­at­ic efforts to reshape polit­i­cal envi­ron­ments through elite cul­ti­va­tion and insti­tu­tion­al pen­e­tra­tion world­wide. The reach of Chi­nese glob­al influ­ence oper­a­tions has inten­si­fied with unprece­dent­ed pre­ci­sion and scope, accord­ing to a new analy­sis. On May 6, 2025, The Irrawad­dy pub­lished an exam­i­na­tion by Ratish Mehta detail­ing how the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty has devel­oped sophis­ti­cat­ed meth­ods to reshape the polit­i­cal envi­ron­ments of oth­er coun­tries, tar­get­ing every­thing from local elec­tions to elite net­works and reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works world­wide. The arti­cle begins:

At the heart of Chi­na’s glob­al strat­e­gy lies a sim­ple log­ic: reshape the polit­i­cal envi­ron­ments of oth­er coun­tries in ways that serve Bei­jing’s long-term inter­ests. Since at least the ear­ly 2000s, the Com­mu­nist Par­ty of Chi­na (CPC) has treat­ed influ­ence oper­a­tions as core instru­ments of state­craft, blend­ing diplo­ma­cy, pro­pa­gan­da, busi­ness, and coer­cion into a seam­less web of polit­i­cal lever­age. What sets the cur­rent phase apart, how­ev­er, is the grow­ing reach of these efforts and the pre­ci­sion with which they tar­get the insti­tu­tion­al foun­da­tions of for­eign systems.

Read more: https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/guest-column/understanding-chinas-calculated-influence-abroad.html

Key Points

• The Huawei inves­ti­ga­tion in Brus­sels uncov­ered an alleged bribery net­work tar­get­ing EU pol­i­cy posi­tions on Chi­nese tech firms.
• Bei­jing has con­duct­ed micro-polit­i­cal inter­fer­ence in local elec­tions, includ­ing alleged manip­u­la­tion of Ade­laide’s 2022 city coun­cil elections.
• Chi­nese oper­a­tions in Africa include con­tent-shar­ing agree­ments with local broad­cast­ers and polit­i­cal par­ty train­ing schools mod­eled on CCP governance.
• Intel­li­gence reports from Cana­da revealed covert oper­a­tions to influ­ence par­lia­men­tary can­di­date selec­tions in con­stituen­cies with sig­nif­i­cant Chi­nese dias­po­ra voters.

Chinese Global Influence Operations: Tactics, Technology, and Worldwide Reach

Chi­nese glob­al influ­ence oper­a­tions have become increas­ing­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed, blend­ing AI-dri­ven infor­ma­tion cam­paigns with tra­di­tion­al tac­tics such as elec­tion inter­fer­ence in the Philip­pines and Cana­da, as well as social media manip­u­la­tion tar­get­ing polit­i­cal fig­ures. The Unit­ed Front Work Depart­ment plays a cen­tral role in these efforts, orches­trat­ing cam­paigns to influ­ence US orga­ni­za­tions and mobi­lize dias­po­ra com­mu­ni­ties. This approach aligns with find­ings from the French Min­istry of Armed Forces’ IRSEM, which describes how Chi­na com­bines eco­nom­ic lever­age, elite cap­ture, and dis­in­for­ma­tion to shape for­eign soci­eties. In the Unit­ed States, influ­ence oper­a­tions and the pres­ence of over­seas police sta­tions have trig­gered leg­isla­tive coun­ter­mea­sures, while Huawei’s lob­by­ing in Europe illus­trates the use of cor­po­rate chan­nels for influ­ence. The U.S.-China Eco­nom­ic and Secu­ri­ty Review Com­mis­sion high­lights how the Unit­ed Front’s glob­al reach extends into polit­i­cal, busi­ness, and aca­d­e­m­ic spheres, aim­ing to sup­press dis­sent and sway pol­i­cy. Recent inves­ti­ga­tions by Ope­nAI and inde­pen­dent researchers reveal that Chi­nese actors are lever­ag­ing gen­er­a­tive AI to auto­mate and ampli­fy dis­in­for­ma­tion, a tech­nique also observed by Taiwan’s gov­ern­ment, which has doc­u­ment­ed Beijing’s use of AI to spread divi­sive nar­ra­tives and under­mine demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions. This con­ver­gence of tech­nol­o­gy, state pow­er, and transna­tion­al net­works under­scores the glob­al scale and adapt­abil­i­ty of Chi­nese influ­ence operations.

Exter­nal References:

1. CHINESE INFLUENCE OPERATIONS — IRSEM

2. Chi­na’s Over­seas Unit­ed Front Work — U.S.-China Eco­nom­ic and Secu­ri­ty Review Commission

3. Ope­nAI finds new Chi­nese influ­ence cam­paigns using its tools — Axios

4. Tai­wan says Chi­na using gen­er­a­tive AI to ramp up dis­in­for­ma­tion — Reuters

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.