China and Russia attack Biden’s so-called “Summit of Democracy”

Chinese and Russian state media are working hard to discredit the Joe Biden government’s Summit for Democracy, taking place this week, calling the bill a hypocrite.

A flurry of tweets from Chinese diplomats referred to the event as a “so-called” summit of democracy, while a Russian political commentator, writing in a Chinese state-run newspaper, likened the US initiative to “a brothel mistress teaching morals [sic] for students”.

The fact that the attacks come from official spokespersons — not robots and trolls — reflects these countries’ anxiety about US efforts to rally support for democratic norms and potentially isolate Beijing and Moscow in the process, authoritarian propaganda experts told the CNN.

“[China e Rússia] they see this as an opportunity to exacerbate cynicism in the political West and undermine any headlines that come out of this summit,” said Jessica Brandt, policy director for the Brookings Institution’s Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative.

“An alternative view”

It’s a familiar game the kind of influence operation the US is likely to face for years as it competes with repressive governments to shape global views on governance, according to analysts.

“We are seeing this effort really focused [da China] to undermine US democracy and present an alternative vision,” said Kenton Thibaut, a China-based researcher at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Laboratory.

The “Summit for Democracy” is one of the Biden government’s most important efforts to promote democratic norms. The conference will have virtual meetings on Thursday and Friday, and will involve representatives from 100 governments, as well as civil society groups and journalists, according to the White House.

“We approach this week with humility and confidence. Humility, because we want to listen and learn, and not run away from our shortcomings; confidence in our constant quest for a more perfect union,” said US Undersecretary of State for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights Uzra Zeya on Tuesday.

The Biden government plans to use the Summit to announce initiatives to fight corruption and advocate for free and fair elections, a senior government official told reporters. He explicitly invited Taiwan to participate in the event.

Chinese and Russian authorities are trying to attack and discredit the message.

Over the weekend, China virtually held its own International Forum on Democracy, supposedly accompanied by politicians and academics from more than 120 countries, and released a white paper (report) falsely claiming that their one-party system is a democracy that works better than the system in the United States.

The Chinese and Russian ambassadors to the United States complained the summit was “undemocratic” in a joint opinion piece published in late November by The National Interest, an American magazine. Chinese and Russian diplomats falsely referred to their countries as democracies.

Bret Schafer, a senior member who tracks misinformation in the Alliance for Securing Democracy, said “democracy” has been the most used hashtag on Twitter for Chinese diplomatic accounts and other government profiles for the past week.

“It has really been a priority for messages [para a China] for weeks,” Schafer told CNN.

When asked how the Biden government might oppose the Russian and Chinese narratives surrounding the Summit, a senior government official said: “Today, many autocratic governments promote the lie that only by restricting citizens’ actions can societies ensure prosperity and safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Despite China’s authoritarian political system and well-documented human rights abuses, the country’s propagandists see promoting Chinese notions of governance as a pathway to legitimacy on the world stage, said Thibaut.

“This is very much in line with what China has been trying to do over the past two years, which is to redefine certain concepts on the world stage, including human rights and democracy,” the researcher told CNN.

Some experts expect the Summit to take important steps to combat the damage that misinformation does to democracies, spreading lies about elections or the coronavirus, for example.

Nina Jankowicz, a researcher at the Wilson Center, called on the Biden government to rally support for an alliance to curb anti-democratic disinformation promoted by China, Russia and other countries.

“Disinformation from both foreign actors and domestic sources is threatening the foundation of democracies around the world and playing an important role in many of the world’s crises,” Jankowicz told CNN. “It is important for the Biden administration to emphasize that truth is the cornerstone of both the Biden era and the democratic community it hopes to build.”

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