The Art of State Persuasion

The Art of State Persuasion explores how authoritarian states like China use media to shape public opinion in foreign disputes. Unraveling the motivations and mechanics of these campaigns, the book theorizes that authoritarian states endeavor to synchronize public sentiment with their foreign policy, capitalizing on media's potential to either mobilize or, paradoxically, pacify. China uses aggressive rhetoric to mobilize if state policy is more hawkish than public opinion, and initiates "pacification campaigns" if the situation is the reverse. This study draws on rich firsthand interviews, archives, and computer-assisted text analysis of official Chinese media data in twenty-one Chinese diplomatic crises. Conversely, if public opinion is more hawkish than state policy, the authorities deploy a "pacification campaign" to mollify public sentiment.