The latest The New York Times investigation linking American millionaire and social activist Neville Roy Singham to news web portal NewsClick is an old story from 2021 when the Enforcement Directorate pointed out the connection between the media platform and the millionaire, who is reportedly affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. But the NYT story adds new details about Singham’s links to the CCP — and a new spotlight on China’s influence operations in India.
In the new Cold War, India’s anxieties with China are as much about ideology as they are about military tensions in eastern Ladakh.
TheED alleged that NewsClick’s editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha received Rs 86 crores between 2018 and 2021 from companies linked to Singham. Now, we know about the funding that NewsClick received through Tricontinental Ltd Inc and Justice and Education Fund Inc, the latter merely a front company with hollow UPS addresses in the US. The ED is yet to file a chargesheet under the anti-money laundering law — which may happen soon.
The Singham story once again reveals that for the CCP, the competition with the US has more to do with an ideological confrontation over the viability of their political system. Those who are surprised by the NYT investigation are now seeing just what others studying China see every day — the battle of ideologies and influence.
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The background
Singham’s wealth increased multifold with the sale of software consultancy company ThoughtWorks, which he founded in 1993, to private equity firm Apex Partners in 2017 for $720 million. At that time, Singham’s company had 2,600 Indian employees working from the Bengaluru office.
The smoking gun in the Singham affair is his affiliation with propaganda officials in Shanghai where renowned Chinese experts, including Zhang Weiwei, a political theoretician close to the CCP leadership, and others gathered to discuss how to “tell China’s story well”. The motive is to tell a ‘positive story’ about China as public opinions worldwide have shown new lows in the sentiment toward Beijing in multiple countries.
Singham now lives in Shanghai, working with the city’s propaganda department. Following this story, the US might investigate Singham’s links to the CCP.
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Indian Left needs to do more
China has a long history of using the united front approach in countries such as Canada, the US, Australia, the UK, and parts of Europe where there is a significant presence of the Chinese diaspora. In India, Left politics and affiliated media organisations have come in handy for using somewhat similar influence operation tactics that are often hard to detect. Indian Left – and other progressive – political ideologies need to seek a new worldview in which they aren’t merely a tool of CCP propaganda.
A new network of influence operations has been active for some time, but the new details in the NYT article brought together how Beijing seeks to exert influence through proxies.
The uproar raised in Indian political circles doesn’t capture the pervasiveness of the propaganda activities that have a long history of targeting Delhi and which continue to intensify.
The intense debate in Parliament — and outside — about the NewsClick story misses the broader picture where China has sought narrative influence in India through various means for a very long time and continues to do so.
A group of vloggers – at least four – from India were recently granted visas and access to remote regions in China, including Aksai Chin and Xinjiang. Average Indians can’t get visa access to those locations, and these vloggers were invited to spread a certain view about China.
The vlogs were viewed by millions of people, telling a story about China’s openness and efficient transportation in the cities. Although the vlogs may appear to be harmless descriptions of a trip, their subtle propaganda effect made an impression on millions. Beijing has used independent content creators for propaganda purposes, and these visits may very well have been part of a coordinated activity to change Indians’ minds about China.
Battle of ideologies
We can’t stop anyone from expressing their opinion, but China will keep on using subtle influence operations to shape public opinion. India’s media industry is regularly approached through informal channels to write for think tanks linked to China. The ideological competition with China – if we seek to acknowledge it – is far more complex than what the NewsClick affair captures.
The NYT story opens with an anti-Cold War protest organised by groups like No Cold War and Code Pink in London. They have mushroomed recently and follow the agenda of countering the US’s military activities worldwide. Indian activist Vijay Prashad – a latte socialist – is the director of Tricontinental and the messiah of the anti-US Leftist groups often interviewed by Chinese State media. Vijay has long been associated with India’s Leftist parties and supported Leftist leaders over the years.
But these groups – subtly or overtly – praise the CCP and its policies. In the past, this author has spoken to people affiliated with these groups in London to understand their worldview.
These groups used to espouse the old Soviet-style anti-US rhetoric, but now they have been co-opted by CCP’s propaganda machinery that wants to challenge the US-led liberal order and democratic institutions through ideological struggle.
The great power competition of the 21st century will not just be the high-tech competition over semiconductor technology or cutting-edge research – the competition is also about ideology. In a world favourable to CCP, its ideas are easily digested like a TikTok video – without creating a raucous.
The Indian polity needs to realise that we are in as much of a world of ideological confrontation as it is about hard military power. The song of multi-alignment that the Narendra Modi government likes to sing is a convenient self-reassurance that will be tested over the next few years when the battle of ideologies intensifies. A neutral India amid the emerging economies is the CCP’s goal – and money and influence-seeking will be pervasive.
The author is a columnist and a freelance journalist. He was previously a China media journalist at the BBC World Service. He is currently a MOFA Taiwan Fellow based in Taipei and tweets @aadilbrar. Views are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)