EVENTS

The Communist Party of China often uses homophonic pen names sophistically as a dual-purpose propaganda mechanism. Since the 1960s Sino-Soviet split, through the Cultural Revolution to contemporary applications, the "secret codes” of political propaganda served dual functions: enabling internal Party communication while bypassing external audience resistance to direct CPC messaging. Writing teams operate under pseudonyms that sound like individual journalists, but in reality, represent collective authorship by specific Party organs, creating an "open secret" system where insiders recognised institutional positions while outsiders were seemingly hoodwinked. Analysis of the 2025 Zhong Sheng/Voice of China commentaries demonstrates China's rhetorical shift from defensive responses to US pressure, toward confident assertions of "equal footing" dialogue and global leadership. Key themes include economic resilience narratives, historical delegitimization of US protectionism, positioning China as a defender of the multilateral order, and soft power initiatives targeting youth engagement. Deconstructing such propaganda mechanisms provides valuable strategic intelligence into Chinese internal dynamics, policy priorities, factional conflicts, and negotiation positions. This "unusual institution" offers constructive insights into China's foreign policy decision-making and strategic communication that complement traditional diplomatic channels, as also points to China's growing diplomatic confidence and belief in dealing with the American pressure tactics.

Speaker

Shantanu Roy-Chaudhury is a David Rockefeller Fellow at the Trilateral Commission. His research and publications focus on China’s relations with South Asia and security issues in the Indo-Pacific. He has worked at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) and the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) in New Delhi, India. He has an MPhil from Oxford University, and an MSc from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is the author of The China Factor: Beijing’s Expanding Engagement in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, and Myanmar (Routledge, 2023).

Chair

Hemant Adlakha is a professor of Chinese at the Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He is also Vice Chairperson and Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi. His research interests include political discourse in the People’s Republic of China, as well as modern Chinese literature and culture. He serves on the editorial board of China Report. His recent publications include articles in China Report, The Diplomat, Japan Times, and the Encyclopedia of Race and Racism (2nd ed., Washington). Marking the centenary of Rabindranath Tagore’s first visit to China, he published “India–China Relations: Revisiting Tagore’s Yearning for Brotherhood Hundred Years Later?” in the Economic and Political Weekly (19 July 2025).

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