China Defenders From Abroad: Exploring Pro-China Foreign Political Influencers on X/Twitter

Abstract

Political influencers are social media users who attempt to shape others’ political attitudes and behaviors through personal influences. While prior research has mainly examined political influencers in Western democracies, this study shifts attention to an international context, focusing on the self-presentation strategies and discursive frames used by non-Chinese political influencers who support China on Twitter (X). Through a thematic analysis of online profiles and a frame analysis of 3000 tweets by 10 influencers, we identified two self-presentation strategies: “the explorer,” which highlights the influencer’s attractiveness, closeness, and passionate authenticity, and “the expert,” which emphasizes expertise and intellectual authenticity. We further propose a typology of four frames used by the influencers to defend or promote China: “Western Hypocrisy,” which criticizes Western double standards; “Western Threat,” which presents the West as a major threat to global security and growth; “System Superiority,” which promotes China’s political model against Western models; and “Common Destiny,” which envisions a prosperous future shared by China’s global partners. We argue that although the political affiliations of these influencers remain ambiguous and difficult to determine, they have become de facto contributors to China’s quest for global reputation in a digital age.