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| CAC = Cyberspace Affairs Commission |
I've mentioned before the so-called "Fifty Cent Army" (无毛军) on the Internet in China. These are paid provocateurs in China, many very young, paid to push pro-Beijing propaganda, to counter foreign attacks on China, to peddle various CCP conspiracy theories (eg, Covid originated in American fish). Apparently, at least early on, they were paid fifty Chinese cents (five mao) per post — about a dime — hence the name.
The link here has a detained study of what China's now up to, by Ryan Fedasiuk, who does detailed amd good work at “China Brief”. [Important Note: China Bried uses links to original Chinese sources, including Chinese government. IOW, they don’t simply rely on secondary sources].
There's a lot new(ish) here, but the general situation is rather well-known. That if you displeae Beijing, an army of trolls is going descend on you. They gonna beat up on yo. The apparatchiks in Beijing are ever more easily offended. Just as the woke-erati are in the west, in an ironic mirroring of mutual victimhood.
But because we know if them and because they often so obvious and crass, so we discount them. Just as we discount trolls in the west.
That said, I don't doubt they have some effect — H&M and the NBL, for example, have both kowtowed to Beijing and shame on them for that.
