On the 28th of November, 2024, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) published an article titled ‘Beijing’s online influence operations along the India–China border’. Written by independent analyst Nishit Kumar, Elena Yi-Ching Ho, co-founder and regional lead at Research and Action Hub and Albert Zhang a former ASPI analyst; the article argues that the Chinese government is likely responsible for several covert disinformation operations conducted on social media, specifically targeting India’s North-Eastern states. The authors working alongside the Taiwanese think tank Doublethink Lab found several instances of networks of Chinese social media accounts exploiting the ethnic tensions in Manipur by spreading disinformation and utilising specific anti-India and pro-China narratives. One of the narratives highlighted in the article is that of ‘little China’ which purports that the North-Eastern states represent a culturally, ethnically and politically distinct and hostile entity to the Republic of India whilst closely aligning the region with China. The authors were able to link these accounts to several attempts made at subverting or affecting the results of elections and referendums in other states like Taiwan and Australia. The attacks, whilst largely ineffective, nonetheless highlighted the importance of disinformation on social media. They conclude by stating that Indo-Pacific democracies must increase the costs that Chinese actors face when engaging in such activities to deter them from further involvement.
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