Power accumulation is a self-reproducing itch. The stronger a state becomes, the more ambitious its schemes to propagate its weltanschauung and increase the scope for its sphere of influence. Competing for control of internationally available information and idea pools is a proven expansionist tendency of great powers throughout history. When the Greek and Persian empires locked horns in the 5th century BC, the latter doctored the former?s poetry to impress upon subject populations the ?liberating? nature of Persian rule. During the tussle between fascism and western liberalism until 1945, both sides resorted to propagandistic newsreels, art posters and state-financed films to reach across the battle lines, win collaborators and undermine the enemy?s foundational structures. The Cold War witnessed intense ?hearts and minds? contests via air waves, with Radio Moscow, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe becoming household names on every continent.
In case someone doubted the existence of a new mega confrontation between two power centres in the post-Cold War era, the Chinese have just unveiled a couple of hulky instruments for information warfare against the West. Within a fortnight, Beijing has fired two major salvos into international public space with the stated goal of challenging western domination of opinion-making. On July 1, the Chinese government?s official news agency Xinhua announced the launch of CNC World, a 24-hour global English TV channel, to purvey ?a China perspective? on all prominent international issues. In tune with the mind-boggling variety of the digital age, CNC World will be broadcast in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and Africa via satellite, cable, mobile phone and streaming feeds on the Internet.
That CNC World, with billions of dollars of state funds, intends to present itself as an alternative to western media giants like CNN and BBC is evident from Xinhua?s declaration that China ?wishes more voices to be heard by the rest of the world?. The inference here is that world publics have been deprived of contrapuntal knowledge due to the oligopoly of western media houses that masquerade as ?independent? but effectively act as mouthpieces of western concepts about organising polity, economy and society.
Xinhua hopes that CNC World, along with China?s official English language news Web site?The Global Times?will break the stranglehold of the West on defining events and phenomena of our time such as ongoing wars, the economic crisis, the climate change impasse, nuclear proliferation and human rights violations. The strategic rationale behind this agenda is that whichever state or power constellation can steer discourse and intellectual substance on these key topics will enjoy an advantageous position in international negotiations, interactions and institutions.
Though some observers have compared CNC World to Qatar?s Al Jazeera network, the Chinese model of advancing soft power through the electronic medium is more akin to that adopted by Russia since 2005. The RT (formerly Russia Today) group of TV channels, propped up by the Russian federal government budget, have brought the ?Russian view? on domestic and international affairs into drawing rooms of audiences around the world. The lens peddled by RT is typically the antithesis of western portrayals. For instance, most studio discussions about international relations on RT channels emphasise the decline of American power as permanent and speak of Bric countries as the only relevant players with promising futures left on the planet. CNC World, which is likely to be flush with a larger budget and better qualified correspondents than RT, will definitely be more sophisticated in editorial content. China?s foreign policy art of subtly but steadily undermining western capacity to mould minds is going to sustain CNC World as an authoritative source, which viewers can tune in to for a distinct take on every breaking international news story.
The other Chinese gauntlet that was thrown at the West earlier this week is the release of the first ever sovereign credit risk evaluation report by a Beijing-based domestic corporate debt rating entity, Dagong Global Credit Company. The document is a hard-hitting riposte to what China considers to be flawed and politically biased sovereign debt ratings by controversy-tainted western majors like Moody?s, Standard and Poor?s, and Fitch. Of the 50 major economies ranked for creditworthiness by Dagong, ratings for 27 are in stark contrast to those awarded by the big three western agencies.
The howler in Dagong?s list is a downgrading of the US from its benchmark Triple-A status to the third-highest category of Double-A. Dagong, which claims to be impartial and privately owned, sang official Beijing?s tune by justifying the demotion as befitting a US that is saddled with high debt and low economic growth. To rub salt into wounds, Dagong places China in the second rung of Double-A+, with ?stable? currency outlooks compared to the US?s ?negative?.
Such markedly unconventional snapshots of global financial reality are bound to be noticed by investors who are antsy about ballooning sovereign debt in advanced economies. Dagong?s upside-down vision of the world also directs the spotlight to China?s own economic strength, which Beijing believes is underestimated by western agencies.
CNC World and Dagong are daggers drawn at the heart of American global information hegemony. They reify Roger Cohen?s depiction of an epic face-off between liberal capitalism and its ?counter model??Chinese-style authoritarian capitalism. A system like India, which fits into neither of these polarised camps, has to be cognisant of the emerging duality and methodically devise its own brand of global informatics to avoid being sucked into one of these two pre-eminent ideational vortices.
The author is associate professor of world politics at the OP Jindal Global University