Well, it'll be almost impossible to even start in the current environment, seeing how quickly the likes of mainstream western media labels any media to do with China being state funded. CGTN would be an example where everything they post is plastered with a big banner on YouTube/Twitter stating Chinese government affiliation.
Unless those main streams of western media consumption gets replaced by an alternative they will always have a headstart against any attempts to convince them otherwise. Ultimately media response is dependent on political messaging and currently the West sees China as a bigger threat then even Russia itself.
So what? This is what I complain about when I complain about self-defeating thinking. Giving up even without a fight.
First of all, it's easy for the Chinese government to just 'donate' money to already established civilian media outlets to begin building out their reach and media credibility. China should be pouring money into expanding the profiles of their new propagandistic institutions and becoming the trusted sources on Chinese news and happenings.
Take, for example, what was happening in Xinjiang. That is, quite frankly, one of the biggest illustrations of the weakness and feebleness of the Chinese propagandistic and diplomatic core. The first any western listener ever heard about Xinjiang is how there's an ongoing genocide from that psychopath Adrian Zenz. Do you know
why? It was because China never bothered with expanding their public outreach and building their propaganda core!
Avoiding this could have been so easy. Had Chinese media propaganda institutions been functional by then, they should have been shouting from the rooftops about how there were terrorist attacks, knifings, and buses running into markets filled with people. China should have been plastering the social media channels with images of the wounded and the dead. With advisors familiar with western sentiments, clear effort can be made to draw parallels with the massive fearmongering against refugees in Europe and the terrorist attacks of 911 and of the dangers of Islamic extremism. Western-literate advisors and propaganda staff could even have helped this messaging spread even further by talking about how this may lead to the collapse of the CPC. Western, and especially American, leadership would just lap that up. This increases the story profile and will show clear reasoning behind Chinese actions in the mind of western observers.
Then, these institutions should have been talking about how and why the government should be doing something about these issues. The government should have
clearly outlined their plan of action, talk about why they decided to disembark on this plan of action, and what the intended aims of their plans are. The first thing the western audience could have heard about these camps, had the propaganda been effective, was that there are essentially institutions that were meant to rehabilitate victims of religious extremist brainwashing! Regardless of what the truth of the matter is,
this is what an effective propaganda institution affords you.
And Zenz? The moment he published his work, there should already be media analysists on the Chinese side on the lookout for him and other western scholars and 'scholars' that are trying to build consensus against China. The large and prolific Chinese media outlets should be discussing his CIA ties. Less credible Chinese tabloids should be publishing articles about him and all his weird takes. Twitter should be absolutely plastered with memes about Adrian Zenz and what he thinks about the Jews and the Gays. Propaganda isn't just about the CNNs and the BBCs. It's also about having staff that act as influencers and moles to mold public opinion. It's about twitter and reddit and youtube. Just hide on Russian propagandists, they're experts at this already. China had been handed one of the easiest enemies to utterly humiliate, and they STILL fucked it up!
The problem with this is that the Chinese state, particularly the CPC, seems utterly allergic to transparency. Lack of transparency means that it's easier to hide things, but it also means that there's no messaging. It means that from an outsider perspective of someone who's not informed on China, it will look like China is doing something that they want to hide. When America controls all the messaging and China refuses to even try to fight back, the current paradigm of a China that is brigaded on basically all sides is what you get.
The problem with the likes of CGTN and Globaltimes isn't that they're Chinese-affiliated. It's that they suck. They suck, they're boring, their presenters are uncharismatic, and the topics they cover are dull. They're not media sources. They quite frankly seem like meal ticket programs for media-studies graduates. They're not acceptable. Stop making excuses. Don't be sorry, be better.