Please join ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) for the launch of their latest Policy Brief ‘Weibo Diplomacy and Censorship in China’ by Fergus Ryan, ICPC Analyst.

This paper will look at efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to control their online media environment. 

Date: 29 May, 2018
Venue: Level 2, 40 Macquarie St, Barton ACT 2600
Time: 1730 -1930

At the same time as the CCP extends its reach into other nations, it is actively limiting the ability of all countries to do the same in China. Seeing itself in an ideological confrontation with “the West”, the CCP under Xi Jinping is determined to ensure ideological conformity in its own information space.

A key battleground in this “ideological confrontation” is Weibo, the Chinese micro-blogging service most closely analogous to Twitter. Since Weibo’s inception, foreign embassies have maintained a presence there, a rare foothold for foreign governments in China’s tightly controlled online media environment. Some embassies, particularly from western countries, have used this position to occasionally speak outside the bounds of the CCP’s frame of acceptable discourse. Increasingly however, foreign embassies appear to be self-censoring, while at the same time, Weibo continues to introduce increasingly subtle methods of direct censorship.

The Policy Brief will be launched by Fergus Ryan, ASPI Analyst, followed by a moderated Q&A with the audience. A drinks and canape reception will conclude the event.