Strategic Communication: Why the Chinese Government Engages in Discourse About Democracy and Why It Matters

• In Event: Propaganda and Information in China

Abstract

Although authoritarian governments are inherently nondemocratic, they talk about democracy frequently. Why do they do so? What does the term democracy mean in an authoritarian political language? This research uses a computer-assisted text analytical approach illustrating how an authoritarian government strategically manipulates the discourse about democracy to benefit itself. By analyzing 1,371,607 political articles in China over 58 years, the study shows a refocusing framing strategy, in which the Chinese government defines democracy not with regime justification but with national policy priorities while denoting democracy most frequently alongside liberal values. With this strategy, the democracy discourse can masquerade as consistent with liberal values in Western democracies but work for the preservation of the authoritarian regime by convincing the masses who are aware of popular conceptions of democracy.

Author

• Yue Hu, University of Iowa