The Russia–Ukraine War in Chinese Social Media: LLM Analysis Yields a Bias Toward Neutrality

Abstract

This study is a cross-platform analysis of the discourses surrounding the Russia–Ukraine war in Chinese social media. Making use of both manual as well as automated classification of discussion about the war, we found most significantly the mass amplification of Russian state positions on Weibo and the reframing of the war as being in the Chinese national self-interest on Douyin. We situate what we call cross-national amplification as well as the national self among other notions that seek to capture the broad discursive power of the Chinese state including digital nationalism, soft propaganda, and playful patriotism. A second set of findings include some agreement between the manual and automated classification, albeit with the artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted platforms showing what we call a bias toward neutrality. We also emphasize the importance of a cross-platform analysis (rather than a single-platform analysis) when seeking to capture public sentiment on social media and the types of orchestrated, state discursive power on display.