Pablo Hiriart
Last Thursday and Friday, a gathering of approximately 300 journalists from Asia, Africa, and Latin America took place in Xi’an at the invitation of the Chinese government. This was the Global Video Media Forum, where communicators aligned with totalitarian ideologies launched a “Global South Cooperation Mechanism,” which essentially articulates the Chinese model wherever they come to power. They have a problem, which they acknowledged verbatim: Generation Z.
One of the attendees wrote that the number one challenge is: “What to do with Generation Z?” It was suggested that “young people have not captured our stories.” And that, for governments that thrive on propaganda, is a cause for distress and panic. Authoritarian governments are no longer attractive to young people. The new generations do not watch state news programs or believe in slogans, and they laugh at the figure of the “heroic guerrilla.” They grew up with the internet, and they compare and mock the official discourse.
Hence, at last week’s meeting, journalists nostalgic for the Wall discussed the need to “innovate formats,” “attract new audiences,” and “build a fresh narrative.” In other words, they want to seduce again with new lies. And China is leading the global media offensive to regain control of the narrative.
For much of the last century, communism knew how to sell itself as the gateway to paradise. With that story, they convinced entire generations. They sent hundreds of thousands of young people in Latin America to their deaths, who took up arms against professional armies in the name of redeeming the working class. Korda’s famous photo of Che Guevara, with his beret and his gaze lost on the horizon, is considered one of the most excellent propaganda products in history.
Millions believed in the Marxist utopia until we learned about the gulags, the repression, the murders of dissidents, the espionage, the hunger, and the fear. Today, faced with a generation that does not easily swallow their narrative, they make tactical adjustments, albeit with the same purpose: to control through lies.
The old propagandists have become “content designers.” They no longer write manifestos but produce clips, podcasts, and videos that go viral. Their task is to dress up authoritarianism in the language of diversity, inclusion, and social justice. Nonsense, again. China, which controls with an iron fist what its citizens can and cannot read, see, or say, wants to conduct this operation on a global scale.
The most insulting aspect of this case is that the forum to discuss journalism was held in a country that imprisons more journalists than any other in the world. Not a single word was said about them. According to Reporters Without Borders, China ranks 178th out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that more than 120 journalists are imprisoned in that country. The invited journalists arrived in that country and, without blushing, spoke of “freedom,” “media cooperation,” and “plurality of voices.” According to those who attended the event, the forum considered it “urgent to connect with Generation Z.” What was the reason for this urgency? Because they cannot tame them.
In China, to circumvent the digital wall erected by the regime, young people utilize a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which establishes an encrypted connection between their cell phone and the internet, thereby hiding their real-time location and online searches. In this way, young Chinese who take the risk can read what the government prohibits and find out what the Communist Party silences. Anyone who has been to China in the last year and talked to professionals who are not too old will confirm that the main desire of these Chinese is to leave their country.
And instead of freeing the press, the regime seeks to create a press that is friendly to those in power, with a youthful face, to continue controlling it. This strategy involves journalists and special envoys from media outlets nostalgic for the Wall. They went to China to exchange formulas for control disguised as collaboration. There is no need to name countries or media outlets, because they are the same ones that remain silent in the face of censorship, justify the harassment of professional media, lend themselves to defaming critics, and act as a sounding board for official discourse. The Xi’an forum was, in reality, an assembly of propagandists seeking new audiences.
And while the communicators enjoyed the artistic events, banquets, and technological exhibitions that the Chinese government prepared for their entertainment, the country’s prisons remain full of journalists. Zhang Zhan, the reporter who chronicled the ravages of COVID-19 in Wuhan, remains in prison, sentenced to four years for “causing disturbances.” Huang Xueqin, a journalist with the MeToo movement, remains in jail, sentenced to five years for “subversion.” Dong Yuyu, a political columnist, remains in prison, sentenced to 14 years for alleged espionage.
The incongruity of the propagandists gathered in China can be attributed to the concept of “fear.” They are not afraid of armed uprisings or UN sanctions. They are scared of young people who refuse to be manipulated, who do not worship portraits, who demand answers and not slogans. That is why they are launching this global media offensive. They need to craft a new narrative that will captivate Generation Z, just as they did with Che’s generation before. But the world has changed. Young people are no longer looking for saviors, but for the truth. Hence, the panic about Generation Z: a threat to manipulators and totalitarians.
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