How Chinese Censorship Allows Discourse on Democracies but Not Its Institutions

• In Event: Global Media Flows and Impacts

Abstract

Prior research suggests that authoritarian regimes manipulate information about liberal democracies, casting them in a negative light and blocking access to foreign websites altogether. I argue that authoritarian censorship strategies regarding liberal democracies are more nuanced. Whether the portrayal of democracies is positive or negative is not as decisive a predictor of censorship. Instead, authoritarian regimes allow public discourse on democracies' governance, including their achievements, while more stringently restricting conversations about democratic institutions, even when they are dysfunctional. Using around 130,000 articles from 2018 to 2022 on China's largest social media platform, I show that content regarding democratic institutions, such as elections, legislature, and judiciary, is four times more likely to be censored than democratic governance, such as economic performance and technological advancements, regardless of its stance. These findings demonstrate that the primary goal of Chinese censorship is impeding mass exposure to democratic institutions rather than merely defaming the West.

Author

• Tony Zirui Yang, University of Oxford