The price of propaganda: Inside Beijing’s mission to drown out dissent

Investigation
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Inside China

The price of propaganda: Inside Beijing’s mission to drown out dissent

Documents reveal a major propaganda strategy to use the local version of TikTok, Douyin, to drown out dissent and tell Xi Jinping’s “good China story”.

Max MasonSenior courts and crime reporter

Dec 6, 2022 – 5.00am

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In Xinjiang in northwestern China, state media journalists were brought together for a “special press conference of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region”.

It was December 9, 2021, and the message was clear: there was no “so-called forced labour” in Xinjiang and the human rights abuses perpetrated against the mostly Muslim ethnic minority were lies made up by the United States and “anti-China” forces.

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Max MasonSenior courts and crime reporterMax Mason covers financial crime, courts and corporate wrongdoing. A Walkley Award winner, Max’s journalism has also received awards from the National Press Club of Australia, the Kennedy Awards and Citibank. Message Max on Signal https://tinyurl.com/MaxMason