The Foreign Service Journal, March 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2023 69 range of information strategies and has developed plans to wield influence over all aspects of the global information sup- ply chain,” writes Kurlantzick. China’s soft power growth is formidable. Chinese state outlet CGTN “has more Face- book followers than any English-language news outlet …except the BBC.” Don’t forget the Xinhua news agency—it’s a real global force. EvenHollywood is self-censoring to try to capture Chinese filmaudiences. China’s “sharp” power, defined as efforts to manipulate and distract other countries, is also growing, with China in some cases following Russia’s lead. Huawei is already building the informa- tion “pipes” for many countries, and at what cost? As Kurlantzick notes, China’s United Front Work Department globally has “covert and coercive efforts to influ- ence opinion leaders in foreign countries.” Many of us have heard of China’s Confu- cius Institutes, now facing much greater scrutiny, across the United States and beyond, but are not aware of the outright purchase of Chinese-language media outlets around the world. Kurlantzick sends us a wake-up call, but he acknowledges that not all is going perfectly in these plans. There are ele- ments that have failed for China. There are things countries can do to push back. Among Kurlantzick’s prescriptions: building a broader, deeper base of knowl- edge on China’s information, media, and influence campaigns; assessing which of Beijing’s tools are effective (or not) and trying to predict ways success will come in the future; improving efforts to counter disinformation in advance; and bolster- ing defenses against Chinese information and influence. As a final thought, Kurlantzick reminds us that all is not perfect for us —our own Freedom House scores for democracy in the United States have fallen, and “the world is becoming more authoritarian.” As we seek to continue our own country’s global influence “for- ever,” we must be careful not to lose sight of our true (internal) strengths. Josh Glazeroff is a consular-coned member of the Senior Foreign Service with 25 years of experience. He is currently serving as the executive director in the Bureau of Consular Affairs. n