The Chinese Communist Party’s Hybrid Interference and Germany’s Increasingly Contentious China Debate (2018-21)

Abstract

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ambition to neutralise independent academia at home and abroad is the conundrum at the heart of this article. Based on a review of the literature on sharp power, hybrid interference, the United Front system and the CCP’s globalising censorship regime the author argues that the CCP’s rule by fear has already induced self-censorship among many western academics. In the empirical part the author puts the spotlight on an increasingly contentious debate among China experts in Germany (2018-21). This expert debate on China takes place across websites, journals, interviews, public talks, public statements of learned societies as well as oral and written testimonies of China scholars at parliamentary committees. Seen in its entirety, Germany’s public China discourse reveals an unwillingness to face up to the changed political realities of Xi’s hard authoritarian China. The article concludes with recommendations on how to overcome arbitrary limitations imposed by the CCP’s political censorship.