A WORLD SAFE FOR THE PARTY CHINA’S AUTHORITARIAN INFLUENCE AND THE DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE Country Case Studies from Nepal, Kenya, Montenegro, Panama, Georgia and Greece INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE Advancing Democracy Worldwide Copyright © 2021 International Republican Institute. All rights reserved. Permission Statement: No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the International Republican Institute. Cover photo: Indian school students wear masks of China’s President Xi Jinping in Chennai on October 10, 2019, ahead of a summit with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. Image credit: Arun Sakar/AFP via Getty Images. 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Acknowledgements These case studies were written by Tinatin Khidasheli, Angelos Bentis, Edwin Okoth, the Center for Democratic Transition, TextOre Inc., Douglas Farah and several other in-country researchers who declined to be named, under the editorship of IRI Senior Advisor David Shullman. Thanks to Adam George, Jack Herndon, Isabella Mekker, Caitlin Dearing Scott and John Fei for their research and editing support. We are grateful to the National Endowment for Democracy for its ongoing sponsorship of this initiative. About the BRIDGE Initiative Over the past three years, IRI has developed and implemented a framework to build resiliency against growing foreign authoritarian influence and interference through its Building Resiliency for Interconnected Democracies in Global Environments (BRIDGE) initiative, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The BRIDGE framework takes a three-pronged approach to mitigating the impact of authoritarian influence on developing democracies: 1) Researching malign Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and its impact on vulnerable democracies; 2) Sharing that research through tailored engagements with IRI’s global network of partners on the ground; and 3) Equipping these stakeholders with tools and resources to bolster democratic resilience and counter foreign authoritarian influence. By engaging stakeholders across sectors — including government officials, political parties, media, private enterprise, and civil society activists — IRI’s work promotes broad awareness of authoritarian tactics and the keys to shoring up vulnerable democratic institutions. The research presented in this report is part of a growing compendium of case studies documenting the CCP’s varied authoritarian influence tactics across countries and the elements of effective democratic resilience, which directly informs BRIDGE programming. iii Glossary: Key Terms and Abbreviations Belt and Road Initiative: A global development strategy adopted by the Chinese government involving infrastructure development and investments across Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. The projects and methods of investment could serve to strengthen China’s strategic economic and security interests. Chinese Communist Party: The founding and ruling political party of the People’s Republic of China. Disinformation: False or misleading information deliberately spread to influence opinion, deceive or obscure the truth. Economic Influence: The use of economic assets to shape incentive structures and the behavior of foreign governments. Elite Capture: A form of corruption in which public officials and national elites manage or direct government projects in a manner that enables them to misdirect resources for their own personal financial gain to the detriment of the public. Foreign Direct Investment: An investment made by a firm or individual in one country in business interests located in another country; this sometimes refers to the aggregation of all foreign investments into or from a particular country. Information Operation: The planned use or manipulation of information to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups of people and individuals. Malign foreign authoritarian influence: The combined effect of an authoritarian government's efforts to shape another country’s internal disputation in ways in which are covert, coercive and corrupt, which makes them malign, illegitimate and distinguished from legitimate public diplomacy and engagement. To these ends, authoritarian actors and state-linked entities employ tactics such as information operations, graft, economic coercion or the subversion of civil society. Sharp Power: The means by which authoritarian actors manipulate their target influence audience by distorting the information that reaches them. ‘Sharp power’ pierces the information environment of target countries, weakening them by deterring legitimate debate in civil society and academia with implied threats of economic or political retribution. Sovereign Debt: The amount of money that a government has borrowed, typically issued as bonds denominated in a reserve currency. State-owned Enterprise: A legal entity that is created by a government in order to partake in commercial activities on the government’s behalf. China’s SOEs, among the largest and most powerful in the world, are responsible for a large portion of BRI activity. The United Front System: The grouping of agencies, social organisations, businesses, universities, research institutes and individuals carrying out united front work. The United Front Work Department: A CCP Central Committee department that coordinates and carries out united front work. United Front: A coalition of groups and individuals working towards the CCP’s goals. United Front Work: Refers to the CCP’s efforts to strengthen and expand the United Front by influencing and co-opting targets. International Liaison Department (ILD): A vestige of the CCP’s liaisons with the Communist International (Comintern) and fellow communist parties that has been repurposed to develop relations with political parties across the ideological spectrum.1 The ILD allows the party to develop relationships with influential and elite individuals in foreign governments while bypassing conventional channels of diplomacy. Under Xi’s leadership and the reassertion of the power of the CCP, the ILD has taken on renewed importance in China’s foreign policy.2 1 Shambaugh, David. “China’s ‘Quiet Diplomacy’: The International Department of the Chinese Communist Party.” Critical Readings on the Communist Party of China (4 Vols. Set), 2017, 336–362, doi.org/10.1163/9789004302488_013. 2 “Xi Jinping Stressed that the Party’s Foreign Affairs Work Must Restore the Historical Splendor Through the Past [习近平强调:党的对外工作要继往开来再创辉煌] .” The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, 15 Apr 2011, gov.cn/ldhd/2011-01/17/content_1786513.htm. iv Common Acronyms ANA-MPA: Greek Athens-Macedonian News Agency HHA: Huadu Hometown Association AA: Association Agreement ICBC: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China AIIB: Asia Infrastructure and Investment Bank ICT: Information and communications technology ALF: Alkaterni Laskaridis Foundation IEVC: Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission AP: Associated Press ILD: International Liaison Department AVIC: Aviation Industry Corporation of China IMF: International Monetary Fund BRI: Belt and Road Initiative IRI: International Republican Institute CASS: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences KBC: Kenya Broadcasting Corporation CATTF: China-Africa Think Tank Forum KCCC: Kenya Chinese Chamber of Commerce CBRC: China Road and Bridge Corporation KCCPPR: Kenya China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful CCCC: China Communications Construction Company Reunification CCP: Chinese Communist Party KOCA: Kenya Overseas Chinese Association CCTV: China Central Television MANS: Network for Affirmation of the NGO Sector CEPET: China Electric Power Equipment and Technology MFA: Ministry of Foreign Affairs CFTZ: Colon Free Trade Zone MoU: Memorandum of Understanding CGGC: Chinese Gezhouba Group Corporation MW: Megawatt CGTN: China Global Television Network NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization CHEC: China Harbour Engineering Company NCIA: Nairobi Center for International Arbitration CI: Confucius Institute NCP: Nepal Communist Party CIAA: Commission for Investigations of Abuse of Authority OCAO: Overseas Chinese Affairs Office CIETAC: China’s International Economic and Trade Arbitration PCCC: Panama China Chamber of Commerce Commission PCCPPR: Panama-China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful CLACPC: China-Latin America and Caribbean Press Center Reunification Commintern Communist International PLA: People’s Liberation Army COSCO: China Ocean Shipping Company PM: Prime Minister