Overview

Last updated: 2024 December.

Edition wording (to review): “Last updated” describes the site, not the edition. Suggested: “China Index 2024 edition · published December 2024.”

Background

In 2019, Doublethink and its partners established the China In The World (CITW) network to address the challenges posed by the PRC’s fast-evolving global influence. CITW is a global network that supports knowledge sharing, capacity-building, and international advocacy among stakeholders researching the PRC’s global influence and disinformation strategies. Every year since its founding, CITW has held annual summits, either in-person or online, at which CITW network members share progress, foster collaboration, and inspire new agendas. CITW Summits are grassroots events designed to enhance members’ abilities to conduct investigations and research that bolster democratic resilience and counter authoritarian influence. Summits and related activities have taken place as far afield as East Asia, Europe, South America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Doublethink Lab and the CITW network coordinate the China Index, the first cross-regional project to measure and visualize the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s evolving overseas influence through comparable data. We anticipate the China Index will serve as a reference tool for academics, media, civil society networks, and policymakers to enhance understanding and awareness of PRC influence, in keeping with the purpose of the CITW network. The Index captures PRC influence across nine Domains: Academia, Domestic Politics, Economy, Foreign Policy, Law Enforcement, Media, Military, Society, and Technology. Each Domain contains 11 Indicators corresponding to observable phenomena of PRC influence, presenting comparable data collected by Regional Partners in collaboration with local experts. The China Index 2022 ranked the PRC’s influence across 82 Country Profiles. The China Index 2024 compares and ranks PRC influence in more than 100 countries and is expected to be released in the second half of 2024.

Edition wording (to review): Future tense from before publication, and the counts belong to one edition. Suggested: “The China Index 2024 edition, released in December 2024, ranks PRC influence in 101 countries and territories; the 2022 edition covered 82.” Likewise “nine Domains … 11 Indicators” → “In the 2024 edition, nine Domains …”.

This version of the China Index collects data for 101 countries and territories in 10 regions (list).

Edition wording (to review): Suggested: “The 2024 edition covers 101 countries and territories in 10 regions.”

About Doublethink Lab

Established in 2019, Doublethink Lab (Doublethink) is a civil society organization devoted to strengthening global democratic resilience by enhancing digital defenses against authoritarianism. Doublethink’s strengths lie in the ability to combine a diverse set of research approaches in the social, behavioral, and computational sciences to study state-funded propaganda campaigns, psychological warfare, and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) operations. As coordinator of the China In The World (CITW) network and the China Index, Doublethink seeks to foster cross-regional collaboration between stakeholders devoted to the study and understanding of the People’s Republic of China’s global influence.