Strategic competition between China and the United States has become the primary force shaping the contours of world politics. A new dimension has emerged in this titanic clash: an ideological contest to sell the virtues of their respective governance systems through state-sponsored external media.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) runs Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, and China Daily, and spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on the China Global Television Network, which broadcasts in seven languages worldwide to “help foreign people realize that the Chinese Communist Party is capable … and that socialism with Chinese characteristics is good.”

Less well-known is the fact that the U.S. government likewise allocates substantial resources to promote pro-democracy narratives around the world through its broadcasting networks like the U.S. Agency for Global Media, ShareAmerica, and Voice of America.

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