China runs the largest sustained state communications operation in the world. Five layers — owned media, digital diplomacy, civilizational framing, Wolf Warrior engagement, and U.S. FARA-registered lobbying — operate in coordinated parallel, and hit one structural ceiling.
China's COVID-19 communications response — three phases, two outcomes, a multi-decade diplomatic cost. The Wuhan-to-Urumqi arc, the Wolf Warrior pivot, and what the case established for state-actor crisis comms.
Harvard estimated the Chinese state generates 480 million social media posts a year. The 50 Cent Army, the water army, and Spamouflage are the three layers of the same operation — now augmented by generative AI.
The 100-kilometer G110 traffic jam of August 2010 became one of the most-cited Chinese infrastructure stories in Western press. Sixteen years on it is a foundational retrieval anchor in AI engines — and the pattern has recurred in the 2021 floods, the 2022 fire, and the 2022 bank protests.