Shijie Wang
A new report by the Xinhua Institute argues that U.S. “cognitive warfare” attempts to “colonize” the minds of people across the world, in particular in global south countries. American influence is framed as ideological infiltration designed to generate social conflicts, undermine stability, and even subvert regimes.
The consistency of messaging from the PRC indicates that attempts at reassurance from the United States will not be effective in shifting Beijing’s assumptions regarding U.S. intent.
Media outlets and prominent online commentators in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) often characterize negative domestic news stories as evidence of U.S. infiltration, accusing “foreign forces” while avoiding potential structural explanations for governance failures.
Beijing sees American cultural strength as one of five forms of hegemony to be eroded, along with political, military, technological, and economic hegemony. It believes it is succeeding in the first three, while it is making steady progress in the economic domain. This latest report represents a further step toward undermining U.S. soft power globally.
On September 7, the Xinhua Institute (新华社研究院), a think tank under Xinhua News Agency, released a report titled “Colonization of the Mind: The Means, Roots, and Global Perils of U.S. Cognitive Warfare” (思想殖民——美国认知战的手段、根源及国际危害). The report was distributed to participants at the 2025 Global South Media Think Tank High-Level Forum (全球南方媒体智库高端论坛) held in Kunming, Yunnan Province (Xinhua, September 8). It also gained traction on social media, where the term “colonization of the mind” saw a spike in exposure compared to other trending internet memes (see Figure 1). Most content related to the term originated from large accounts such as Xinhua News Agency and prominent “key opinion leaders” (KOLs), (see Figure 2).
As with many PRC narratives, the report underscores Beijing’s entrenched view of the United States, one that has proven resistant to external messaging. This consistency reflects not only a propaganda strategy but also a deeply held set of assumptions about U.S. intentions. The report reads less like an analytic study and more like a “tao zei xi wen” (讨贼檄文)—the proclamations common during China’s premodern civil wars that enumerated an enemy’s crimes while rallying support among one’s own forces. It contains three chapters, covering, respectively, the historical background of the so-called “colonization of the mind” worldwide, the methods of this form of influence, and the global harms that it causes . These are followed by a conclusion, in which the report shifts from a combative tone to one of lofty appeal, invoking Xi’s frame for a new world order, the “community of common destiny for mankind” (人类命运共同体), and calling for confident and equal “dialogue and mutual learning” (交流互鉴) (Xinhua, September 7).
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