China’s Military Turns on Charm Offensive

The Straits Times

13 January 2019

Short video clips aimed at depicting the everyday life of its uniformed personnel are exceedingly popular on video-sharing app Douyin, and speak of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reaching out to a new generation of Chinese with technology, as well as a friendlier face. Since last year, at least 15 official military accounts have been launched, alongside thousands from other government and party departments on the platform. That these videos have been sanctioned by the party-state also shows the PLA leadership’s awareness of social media as a soft-power tool to appeal to the young, while portraying the human side of the PLA, said Mr James Char, an expert on the Chinese military at NTU.

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