International Mudslinging: Negative Propaganda and Overseas Regime Support

• In Event: Poster Session: Democracy and Autocracy (II) & Class and Inequality
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Democracy and Autocracy (II)

Abstract

Autocratic governments sling mud at foreign countries, highlighting their failures and malice, as a negative propaganda strategy. Does this strategy promote overseas citizens’ support for the autocratic government? We argue that, because of the “backlash” effect against mudslinger, international mudslinging is less effective than positive propaganda – that focuses on the autocratic government itself – with receivers having inconsistent information with mudslinging messages. We draw evidence from an original survey experiment with Chinese students in the U.S. using genuine COVID-related messages from China’s official media. We find that while positive propaganda promotes overseas citizens’ support for the Chinese government, international mudslinging is ineffective or counterproductive, particularly on overseas Chinese who are ideologically incongruent with the regime, do not see COVID-19 as very severe in the U.S., or have received health kits from the Chinese government. Our findings suggest that international mudslinging does not help autocratic governments shift public opinions of their overseas citizens. This paper also implies that international mudslinging does little to advance China’s endeavors of luring overseas talents to return.

Authors

• Jia Li, Utah State University

• Rosemary Pang, University of Massachusetts Amherst