When and why do authoritarian states allow or even promote domestic media coverage of foreign disputes, compared to when they discourage or censor such coverage? As much as domestic survival matters for authoritarian leaders, the frequent involvement of authoritarian states in some of the world’s most dangerous disputes calls for a better understanding of their domestic constraints and motivations. These low-cost, low-risk “foreign influence campaigns” are also labeled by U.S. leaders as pertinent to national security that requires a deeper understanding. Leveraging on extensive fieldwork and original sources, Wang will talk about her book project that analyzes 19 Chinese diplomatic crises precipitated by territorial disputes to explain why and how authoritarian states manage public opinion about such disputes. Focusing on the 2016 Sino-Philippines arbitration case on the South China Sea dispute, Wang illustrates how Beijing uses a media campaign counterintuitively to mollify a militant public opinion and to pave the way for a moderate foreign policy.
Yaping “Frances” Wang is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s International Security Center.
All are welcome.
Originally published at asia.nd.edu.