Since at least 2015, political leaders in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia have given their support to intensified engagement between official media organizations and relevant government agencies from the two countries. Taking place within the scope of positive relations between the PRC and Russia and astride a deepening of mutual tensions with the West, the engagements raise the possibility that the two countries are cooperating in information operations directed at foreign targets. This report has found that, where mutual interests converge, the PRC and Russia align their information operations. The most common modality for this is narrative coordination, such as the efforts by Xinhua and RT to amplify efforts by Mauritius to win sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, controlled by the United Kingdom and home to U.S. Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. The two countries have also adopted shared practices, such as encouraging diplomatic staff to establish a presence in local media and organizing training programs for journalists from foreign countries.
Where mutual interests do not converge, however, PRC and Russian information operations can target one another – as in the case of Chinese reporting on challenges faced by Russian space-related assistance in Africa, an area that is coveted by Chinese counterparts. Edited media is the dominant venue for joint information operations; in comparison, bilateral coordination in social media-based operations is underdeveloped. Organizational Twitter accounts belonging to PRC and Russian official media have retweeted each other only 17 times, all since 2018. A handful of journalists employed by official media have been more active, but their inability to spawn a broader network of interaction is one among a series of challenges facing the deepening of cooperation between the PRC and Russia in the global information environment. Other impediments include an asymmetry between the resources available to each country in pursuing their respective information operations, as well as a fundamental difference in ultimate goals: the PRC aims to bolster its international reputation, while Russia seeks to undermine trust in the Western institutions.
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