Disinformation studies have been engaged in a pivot to Asia. A growing number of scholars and governmental experts around the globe who were once fixated on Russian operations are now increasingly concerned with Chinese operations, especially since the beginning of the Hong Kong crisis. The danger in this evolution is looking at China through a Russian lens, an already widespread mistake. As J. Michael Cole rightly noticed, “Applying the Russian model to the PRC’s efforts would be both misleading and dangerous as we seek to counter its more nefarious impact.” Both cases are very different, and any intellectually rigorous analysis encompassing both should start by contrasting them.
