New Propaganda: How China’s Security Forces Seek to Shape Public Opinion

In the sections that follow, I describe the evolution of security force propa- ganda in China and the rise of Douyin as a new mode of propaganda delivery. [...] Most importantly, these accounts pro- duce the content that members of the public are the most likely to see, simply by the very nature of their popularity.8 The 10 military and PAP accounts have the highest viewership, with an average of 254 million hearts and 12 million 359 Suzanne E. [...] In an effort to make viewers both laugh and learn, one of the videos shows the cop pulling over a driver (played by the same actor) and the female passenger (also the same actor). [...] Of the references to the United States about half were nega- tive, and interestingly, every type of propaganda contained references to the United States, even the categories of helping, humanization, and social media style, which we might expect to be the most inwardly focused. [...] The variety of all the videos demonstrates the level of commitment that security personnel leaders and officers place on producing and disseminating this type of content as well as their interest in developing a unique voice on social media that may increase their reach and number of followers.