Chinese propagandists court South-East Asia’s Chinese diaspora
They are winning converts for China’s worldview
EVERY NIGHT Lee Ah Huat (not his real name) turns on the news. The 60-something engineer lives in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, but he does not bother with local channels. He goes straight to CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, and usually watches its international broadcast in Chinese. Mr Lee’s family left China and settled in Malaysia decades ago. He maintains few direct connections to his ancestral home and has complicated feelings about it.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “The embrace of the motherland”
Asia November 20th 2021
From the November 20th 2021 edition
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