ABSTRACT
China’s Party-state and its military sees the Internet as an ideological battlefield. In an era of big data and rapid advances in artificial intelligence, China, unsurprisingly, appears to be actively interested in new techniques to exploit these technologies to monitor and manipulate public opinion. The very notion of Internet freedom is seen as a direct challenge to China’s model of “Internet management.” In the course of its rise, China is seeking to exercise global influence that is commensurate with its increased capabilities. In practice, China’s approach to and exercise of soft power often depart from the original notion, in ways that have invited the coining of the concept of “sharp power” to characterize Chinese activities and engagement in the world. In the aggregate, Beijing’s efforts have been since criticized as a new model of “authoritarian influence,” characterized as “sharp power,” which can be bullying or coercive.
