Deep Dive: Weifeng Zhong on China's Propaganda
July 24, 2022
What does it feel like to learn that historical truths have been hidden from you? Weifeng Zhong talks about this and how he turned his early experiences into a project to better understand the past, the present, and (with some help from his algorithms) the future.
What does it feel like to learn that historical truths have been hidden from you? Weifeng Zhong talks about this and how he turned his early experiences into a project to better understand the past, the present, and (with some help from his algorithms) the future.
“We don't pay enough attention to history,” says Weifeng Zhong in this Great Antidote podcast with host Juliette Sellgren.
Weifeng Zhong is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University where he leads the open-source Policy Change Index (PCI) project. The PCI's goal is analyze Chinese propaganda on policy issues using machine learning. Past issues it's focused on are pro-democracy protest responses and Covid-19. Previously, Zhong was a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Long before all of that though, he was born and grew up in China. But, like many others before him, to learn Chinese history he had to leave China. In one dramatic example, he talks about It wasn't until he went to Hong Kong as an adult that he learned about the full scope of what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Key Quote:
Weifeng Zhong is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University where he leads the open-source Policy Change Index (PCI) project. The PCI's goal is analyze Chinese propaganda on policy issues using machine learning. Past issues it's focused on are pro-democracy protest responses and Covid-19. Previously, Zhong was a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Long before all of that though, he was born and grew up in China. But, like many others before him, to learn Chinese history he had to leave China. In one dramatic example, he talks about It wasn't until he went to Hong Kong as an adult that he learned about the full scope of what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Key Quote:
I had school in the day so I had to watch [the Tiananmen Square documentaries] at night and it was really painful when you watch in a dark room showing on a screen in the dark evening...you hear the gunshot directed at students, people running, screaming. It, it's very painful but I think looking back, more painful to me was actually the fact that I did not know until so much later. It's the shock and the revelation and the feeling of being in the dark. Not knowing for so long, that was the more excruciating part for me.
Juliette Sellgren, of course, has questions.
- What's the difference between propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation?
- What is the relationship of Hong Kong to China and how has it changed in recent years?
- How is journalism different in China than in the US?
- What do you think is the most important thing for people to understand about how information is controlled and the impact of that on the culture and the political economy of China?
Zhong and Sellgren talk about Zhong's work on the PCI as well: what the goals of the project are, how the index works, and examples of how it could be used to help inform policy makers.
Key Quote:
When you think of Chinese propaganda, you think immediately, "It's probably misinformation, it's disinformation." Both of the claims are true but more importantly my view was that now we have the perspective to watch how the puppeteer runs the show. And so, from how the Chinese government chooses its words, you could make inferences about the Chinese government's policy intentions. And this is how the index works.
Zhong also talks about how the history of Tibet in related to current circumstances with Hong Kong, the bravery of Chinese journalists, intellectual property in China, polarization in the US, how the treatment of the Uyghur people is the same and different from the US interment of Japanese Americans and much more.
Sellgren ends, as always, by asking Zhong to talk about something he's changed his mind about and he speaks about the evolution of his perspective on China joining the World Trade Organization.
Sellgren ends, as always, by asking Zhong to talk about something he's changed his mind about and he speaks about the evolution of his perspective on China joining the World Trade Organization.
Listen to this episode
Weifeng Zhong on China's Propaganda
Weifeng Zhong on China's Propaganda
The guest
- Professional Profile
- Tweets at @WeifengZhong
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C-SPAN videos
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Resources compiled by Christy Lynn