China has been scaling up its influence campaign in Spanish-speaking countries in the past few years by producing and publishing tens of thousands of videos through the three largest Spanish-language YouTube channels of its state media, a recent study finds.
However, the study also shows that most of the videos have very few views and have failed to make an impact among the Spanish-speaking public.
The report, released Tuesday by Chile's Center for Analysis for Democracy, examined the YouTube channels of CGTN Espanol, Xinhua Espanol and Hola China. The target audience is mainly viewers living in Latin America and Spain.
Since 2009, the three channels have run up a combined total of more than 800,000 subscribers and have published more than 80,000 videos, the study found. But it said most of those videos are seen by no more than a few hundred people.
The Center of Analysis for Democracy analyzed about 5,000 videos from each channel.
The report said videos promoting the People's Republic of China system, infrastructure, and development were prominent, as was news emphasizing Chinese culture and poverty alleviation in Xinjiang.
The most common topics were related to China and Xi Jinping, followed by issues such as the U.S. competition with China, and U.S. crises such as fentanyl addiction and migration waves. The videos often portray topics related to the United States with a negative tone.
The report said Xinhua acts as "an amplifier for China's foreign policy in the region," highlighting Chinese activities, projects and the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and local governments, and promoting "policies or candidates in the region that align with China's ideas of governance."
Sascha Hannig Nunez, author of the report, told VOA that most of the content on the official media channels is consistent with what the Chinese government says, and independent thought is almost nonexistent.
"The whole system of channels is clearly guided toward enhancing Beijing's soft power and public diplomacy through Chinese content," she said. "These are institutions of the CCP first and media outlets second."
Victoria Chonn-Ching, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, said the purpose of China's media operations in Latin America is often to persuade regional countries to choose Beijing instead of Washington.
"A lot of messages come into building China's image, in that it is a friendly partner, a partner that wants to work with many countries in the region. And at the same time, it also comes with the message, 'This is how we do better vis-à-vis the United States,'" Chonn-Ching said during a panel discussion on Monday at the Atlantic Council.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington told VOA, that China “was not aware of the specifics” of state media’s operations on YouTube in Spanish-speaking countries.
"Chinese media conduct journalism in an objective and truthful manner," the embassy said.
Nunez’s report also said that Xinhua manipulates information by finding supporters and generalizing their opinions or exaggerating their authority.
A video titled "China's new growth and welfare goals are praised in Argentina" uses an expert to discuss China's development goals, but the expert is the president of the China-Argentina Friendship Association, who is known for his close ties to the CCP and is not a mainstream, influential figure in Argentina.
Hernan Alberro, an international relations and human rights consultant, told VOA that China's strategy is to muddy the water.
"By flooding the field with information ranging from good and nice stories to pure and simple disinformation, what they end up doing is generating ... a kind of generalized skepticism towards all kinds of news," he said.
"Beyond the fact that disinformation continues to seep into our society, there is a phenomenon that is starting to happen that I am beginning to notice, which has to do with the generalized attitudes of many educated people, who say they no longer believe in anything ... to avoid getting sucked into fake news.
“So, they say they do not believe anyone. The problem with this is that not believing anyone is simply a fantasy.”
The Nunez report states that Xinhua also helped promote disinformation from Russia in 2022. It claimed that a U.S. laboratory in Ukraine had produced a very dangerous virus.
The Spanish-language channels of Chinese state media have often broadcast content from Russian state media in the past two years, which YouTube blocked following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The report said the Chinese state media's approach on YouTube is "aimed at engaging audiences with a high volume of content" and acquiring a following, then periodically pushing more political content to recurrent viewers.
However, the vast majority of their videos published since 2016 have received fewer than 500 views each, according to the report.
"The truth is that the impact is quite moderate, not to say minor, because few people see it,” Alberro said.
“In general, it is content that tends to be quite unattractive to the Latin American audience. Yet, like any initiative, this has a learning process, and we do not know if in five years the landscape changes radically. And Latin America is massively consuming this type of content. But today, that is not happening."
Nunez said even if the influence of state media is small, political propaganda and false information still pose a certain threat to the Spanish-speaking public, because when it comes to understanding China, Spanish netizens don't have many other sources of information.
"Since YouTube is such an important platform for younger audiences, and since there aren't many alternatives to know about China in the language, the [Chinese state media have] advantages in its lack of competition with alternative sources in the language."
Adrianna Zhang and VOA’s LatAm Service contributed to this report.
