The Chinese Communist Party is increasingly adapting its domestic coercive tactics to influence and interfere in foreign democratic countries. Find ASD’s work on the tools China uses—ranging from the weaponization of its economy to Beijing’s attempts to control global and domestic narratives—to interfere in democracies on this page.
French Election Dashboard Toplines: April 4–10, 2022
Highlights The Russian Embassy in France attempted to deny and deflect after evidence of mass killings in Bucha shocked the French public last week. Top tweets by the embassy implied that the killings only surfaced days after Ukrainian troops took o [...]
Hamilton Toplines: April 4–10, 2022
Russia The push by Russian propagandists last week to distort information on the atrocities in Bucha marked the Kremlin’s most aggressive disinformation campaign of the war. Russian diplomats and state media tweeted the term “Bucha” more than 1,000 [...]
Bret Schafer Quoted in The New York Times: China’s Echoes of Russia’s Alternate Reality Intensify Around the World
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Chinese state media and government officials have been increasingly echoing Russian disinformation and undermining Beijing's efforts to promote a neutral position. As Russia faces renewed condemnation for the a [...]
Interference in the 2022 French Presidential Elections: Where Things Stand Ahead of the First Round
On Sunday, April 10, French voters will choose which two of the 12 presidential candidates will proceed to the second-round runoff. Most polls predict incumbent Emmanuel Macron to come in first, with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen or far-left can [...]
Bret Schafer Quoted in The Washington Post: China is Russia’s Most Powerful Weapon for Information Warfare
After Russian state outlets were blocked in Europe and restricted around the world on major social media platforms, Chinese state media and government officials have emerged as major amplifiers of pro-Kremlin disinformation on the war in Ukraine. “W [...]
Chinese Disinformation Fuels the War in Ukraine
Chinese disinformation spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China uses similar tactics as during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the scale and intensity are greater. Chinese disinformation conceals Russia’s responsibility for the war and promotes R [...]
Hamilton Toplines: March 28–April 3, 2022
Russia Russian diplomats and state media last week spread disinformation to discredit reporting on Russia’s alleged war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine. With images of destruction and death in Bucha coming to light as Russian troops leave the area, Kremlin [...]
Zack Cooper Breaks Down EU-China Summit on CNBC
Zack Cooper of the German Marshall Fund of the United States says China is probably overestimating the degree to which Europe sees a need to engage “in a productive way” with it, especially when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine war. [...]
Zack Cooper Discusses the State of China-Russia Relations on Fox Business
During an interview on "Mornings with Maria," Zack Cooper of the Alliance for Securing Democracy argued that the relationship between China and Russia is "as strong as ever." [...]
Hamilton Toplines: March 21–27, 2022
Russia Last week, “Biden” was the third most used phrase by Russian diplomats and state media on Twitter, as Kremlin-linked accounts attacked the U.S. president for saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “butcher” who “cannot remain in p [...]
Propaganda, Politics, and War: Information Manipulation in France’s Presidential Election
Speakers Iris Boyer, Advisory, Institute for Strategic Dialogue France Julien Nocetti, Associate Fellow, French Institute of International Relations Bret Schafer, Senior Fellow and Head of the Information Manipulation Team, Alliance for Securing Dem [...]
French Election Dashboard Toplines: March 14–20, 2022
Highlights Despite being less than a month away from the first round of the presidential election in France, the elections have received far less coverage in state-backed media outlets than the war in Ukraine and other topics. None of the top 10 key [...]

