Dr. Li Bicheng, or How China Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Media Manipulation

Beauchamp-Mustafaga et al.'s 183-page report is the most detailed available analysis of Chinese military doctrine for social media manipulation, based on original Chinese-language primary sources — PLA academic journals, military textbooks, and doctrine documents — that most Western analysis does not access. The report traces the evolution of Chinese military thinking about social media as an information warfare domain, from scepticism to systematic exploitation, and documents the doctrinal framework that now guides PLA information operations.

The generative AI dimension is the report's most forward-looking contribution. Drawing on Chinese military writings on AI-enabled information operations, the report documents how the PLA conceptualises generative AI as a capability multiplier for social media manipulation — enabling mass production of tailored content, persona management at scale, and adaptive narrative deployment. For practitioners assessing the trajectory of Chinese information operations, this report provides both the doctrinal baseline and the most credible available assessment of how that doctrine is evolving in the AI era.