In a liberal norm-based human rights regime, authoritarian states are expected to face regular criticism for their rights abuses from their peers. However, research to date shows that this is not necessarily the case in a highly politicized international human rights regime. How, then, can a rising authoritarian power such as China avoid criticism and enhance its standing within the international human rights regime? I argue that China leverages its economic power to emphasize an alternative standard and improve reciprocal state-to-state reviews of its human rights conditions. Using text-based coding and text similarity analysis of the UN Universal Periodic Review reports, I demonstrate that China primarily adopts development-based human rights norms when assessing other countries. After receiving new development aid projects and debt relief from China, countries tend to be more lenient in their reviews of China’s human rights record in subsequent cycles. These findings suggest that power shift has occurred in a liberal-norm based order: The Global South is more receptive to China’s voices in the human rights regime than expected.

Beyond Liberal Narratives: China and the International Human Rights Order (with Xinyuan Dai), SCRIPTS Working Paper No. 40, Berlin: Cluster of Excellence 2055 “Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)

The meteoric rise of China represents a seismic shift in International Relations. With a focus on human rights, we examine this shift’s implication on the international institutional order — does China challenge, undermine, and replace rules and institution’s that an earlier and much weaker China did not fully participate in making? Using the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) as a laboratory, we analyze more than 93,000 recommendations made between 2008 and 2021. We highlight the multidimensionality of international human rights norms and provide new and systematic evidence that China, like most other countries, endorse some norms than others. China champions strongly and increasingly economic and social rights. Its position is shared by many countries, particularly the Global South, which believe economic and social rights are more important than civil and political rights.

Political Communication and Public Diplomacy

Autocrats have always sought to win the hearts and minds of their citizens, but whether they are more capable of achieving this goal through direct interactions with citizens on social media is an open question. This study examines the communication strategies of Chinese state-run media on social media regarding international news. I draw on observational data from Weibo, to reveal how state-run media engage with international news. Their engagement manifests in two modes, neutrally or sensationally. The more neutral and moderate approach adopted by state-run media in their narratives is likely to elicit positive evaluations of the host government or exacerbate negative perceptions of the foreign country’s situation, particularly in the case of the U.S. This paper demonstrates how the nuanced media strategies employed by state-run media in engaging the online public on social media can engender greater public support for the government than previously assumed.

Absent formal avenues of transparency, how does China publicize its foreign aid and debt allocation efforts? We examine the role of Chinese state-sponsored media and diplomacy as complements to Chinese foreign aid. We use AidData’s Chinese development finance dataset and its recently released diplomacy dataset, along with meta-data from millions of Xinhua news articles between 2002 and 2017. We find that China likes to publicize its role as donor, but seeks closer ties with its debtors.

“Soft Propaganda.” [Invited in Encyclopedia of Political Communication, R&R]

Soft propaganda is often considered as a residual category encompassing all forms of propaganda that do not fall under the category of hard propaganda. In comparison to hard propaganda, soft propaganda tends to be more entertaining, emotionally captivating, and potentially more credible. This approach can be particularly effective in today’s media era. Nonetheless, the key challenge in studying the effectiveness of soft propaganda lies in defining and understanding the intricacies of this elusive concept.

Impacts of Chinese Foreign Aid

Up-and-Coming Chinese Aid: Local Affinity to the Chinese Model in the Shadow of Western Donors

China spends billions of dollars on aid, but can its money buy influence among citizens from recipient countries? I investigate the extent to which Chinese aid in recipient countries compares to the more established World Bank aid, and I also examine the public’s perceptions of these two donors. In contrast to the common perception of unwelcoming Chinese aid, I demonstrate that Chinese aid has garnered appreciation among the locals in recipient countries, particularly when they co-exist with traditional World Bank aid projects and in areas where Chinese aid demonstrates a specialization.

Connect First, then Suppress: Do Communication Aid Projects Undermine Internet Freedom? (with Yujeong Yang, Miles Williams, and Xinle Jia)

In both democracies and autocracies, the erosion of internet freedom represents a substantial threat to democracy. Over recent decades, developing countries have witnessed a rapid surge in internet connectivity, driven in part by an upswing in aid projects dedicated to information and communication technology (ICT) development. Our research reveals that Chinese aid geared toward ICT development has a negative relationship with internet freedom in recipient countries. Conversely, communication-related aid projects funded by the World Bank do not exhibit a similarly negative correlation.

China is currently expanding its investment in renewable energy sources within its domestic sphere. This transition towards green growth is primarily driven by increased pressure and concerns over citizens’ health. However, it is intriguing to observe that China’s overseas finance portfolio is also embracing greener energy initiatives. Why are Chinese overseas finance projects transitioning to greener energy even without pressure from domestic constituents or foreign countries? We argue that it is a downstream effect of China’s stricter environmental regulation on green economy and renewable energy initiatives back in 2012. To explain why China appears as a genuine leading player in spearheading renewable technologies and fostering the global green economy market, its prior green domestic policy shift carries more weight than international commitments.

Text-as-data Projects

Codes of Conduct in Political Science Conferences: Prevalence and Content (with Nora Webb Williams) [Forthcoming in PS: Political Science & Politics][Replication data]

Academic conferences ideally promote positive environments that make scholars from underrepresented groups feel welcome. Yet negative experiences at conferences continue. Codes of conduct have been promoted as tools to reduce harassment and discrimination. We examine the prevalence and content of codes at U.S.-based political science conferences and workshops. More specifically, we analyze how codes address issues of sexual misconduct and identity-based discrimination. We find that 19% of surveyed conferences have codes. Many of the codes are what we deem to be “symbolic.” We argue that effective conference codes must contain clear definitions, clear reporting channels, and clear enforcement procedures.

Existing studies show that civil wars are often contagious. One important mechanism explaining this phenomenon is that an outburst of civil conflict can inspire rebel groups in neighboring regions to follow suit. However, we do not know how potential rebel groups gain relevant information, especially when there is no formal link between different rebel groups in different regions. Using an original data collection and analysis of local news reports on a national broadcast in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2010 to 2020, we find that more news coverage of lethal conflicts leads to more frequent conflict diffusion. The effects are most pronounced in the same or neighboring cities. This project sheds new light on understanding sources of civil war contagion by integrating research in civil war and communication studies where the news coverage as a source of information and inspiration can possibly conflict diffusion within a country.