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China

China’s Information Warfare

By experts and staff

Published
  • Elizabeth C. Economy
    Hoover Institution, Stanford University
A woman holds a flower aloft in front of the portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on May 19, 2008.
A woman holds a flower aloft in front of the portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on May 19, 2008. (David Gray/Courtesy Reuters)

As June 4 approaches, I am struck by how many discordant voices we hear in China today and how mightily the Chinese people are struggling to reckon honestly with their past and figure out their path forward. In just the past few weeks, there have been some striking examples of a hundred flowers blooming.

I think Mr. Li perfectly reflects the transition point at which China’s leaders find themselves today—desiring the benefits of an open society but clinging to the comfort of trying to control the distribution of those benefits.  One hundred flowers can’t bloom if you keep trying to pull up their roots.