Early PsyWar Poster From Communist China
“Psychological warfare PSYWAR the planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions, having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives”
Desperate to deceive international opinion that recent tragic events in Urumchi, East Turkestan were the result of external orchestration communist China’s psyops agency, having evoked images of brute criminal violence, followed by the paranoia of Islamic terrorism, now brings forth alleged testimony, claimed to be from relatives of Rabiya Kadeer, to support official communist Chinese propaganda that the unrest and subsequent loss-of-life were somehow the responsibility of the prominent Uyghur exile. It is of course a crude attempt, at what is known within psychological operations as the ‘quicksand strategy’, employed with great effect by Nazi propaganda Minister Joseph Goebells’, in which a ‘big lie’ is circulated to make an antagonist struggle to refute damaging allegations. Thankfully, no one possessed of any normal intelligence or integrity will be manipulated by such calumny, as it is obvious that Rabiya Kadeer is a lady of principle, and wholly committed to peace, justice, human rights and democratic freedoms.
However China places great value upon the role of psychological operations, and its potential to distort the perceptions of a target audience, in this case, international opinion, in particular the media. This is demonstrated by the announcement by Xinhua (communist China’s propaganda agency) that there is documented evidence [sic] in the form of letters, supposedly written by Ms Kadeer’s relatives. Sadly, once again the Indian Newspaper, The Hindu has displayed an unhealthly acceptance of Chinese propaganda and uncritically reported this obvious forgery as if it were statement of truth, see here http://www.thehindu.com/2009/08/04/stories/2009080453271500.htm
Clearly the editors of this respected Indian publication seem unaware that the issuance of false statements and forged documentation has a long history http://www.foia.cia.gov/browse_docs.asp?doc_no=0000608985 a tradition actively exercised today by China’s security and propaganda agencies See File
The ability to manage and modify public impression is regarded by the communist Chinese regime as a prized instrument of power, which in 2000 established the Institute of Psywar of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army which trains officers in a range of psychological warfare techniques, including disinformation and media manipulation.
See http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/200110/24/eng20011024_83053.html
As noted by Chinese military academics Wang and Yang:
“In modern times the vast development in informationscience, psychology, the science of broad-casting, and other sciences, and in particular the emergence of new and high tech-nologies such as satellite communications,electronic computers, networking technology, and multimedia technology, provide a firm theoretical foundation and modern tools for psychological warfare.” (Source-Wang Zhenxing and Yang Suping, “On PSYWAR in Recent High-Tech Local Wars,” Junshi Kexue [China Military Science] December 20, 2000, pp. 127-33)
Let us hope that editors and news agencies will exercise their critical faculties a liitle more rigorously next time they receive a press-release from Xinhua!
