Chinese Disinformation Efforts on Social Media

Harold, Beauchamp-Mustafaga, and Hornung's 206-page analysis of Chinese disinformation on social media is grounded in PLA doctrine — the military-theoretical framework through which China conceptualises information operations as a form of warfare — and traces how that doctrine manifests in observable social media activity. Taiwan receives sustained attention as the primary test bed for Chinese information operations: the volume, sophistication, and strategic logic of Chinese operations targeting Taiwan's information environment have produced the most extensive real-world dataset for analysing Chinese tactics.

The doctrinal grounding distinguishes this report from most open-source analysis of Chinese influence operations, which tends to be descriptive rather than explanatory. Understanding why Chinese operations take the form they do — what strategic objectives they serve within PLA doctrine — enables better prediction of future tactics and more targeted counter-measures. For practitioners assessing Chinese information operations, this is the analytical foundation; it should be read alongside the subsequent Beauchamp-Mustafaga et al. report on Chinese military social media manipulation doctrine and generative AI.