Information-psychological counteraction of China: a retrospective analysis

V. V. Sobolnikov

doi:10.20913/2618-7515-2021-1-21

Information-psychological counteraction of China: a retrospective analysis

V. V. Sobolnikov

https://doi.org/10.20913/2618-7515-2021-1-21

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Abstract

Systemic threats, growing role of information technologies have actualized the problem of informa- tion and psychological confrontation in China. The paper objective is a retrospective analysis of the confrontation system psychological aspects. The study aimed at the Chinese confrontation as an ethnocultural phenomenon and its psychological core. The methodology is a psychological and cultural approach to the analysis of the confronta- tion system to achieve information superiority by CPR. The theoretical basis is the specificity of the consciousness evolution, obtaining the mental experience determined the semantic nature of the Han ethnos, spiritual unity and culture in "Chinese centrism" form. The author uses methods of systemic, retrospective, phenomenological and dis- course analysis. It was found that the specificity of the confrontation system was made up of fragments of ancient Chinese stratagems, technologies of secret societies, the theory of "people’s war", elements of the theory of West- ern information-psychological wars. The Chinese "Concept of three wars" (psychological, media and legal war), established the right to preemptive actions in cyberspace and strike first. The analysis of the psychological nature of counteraction determined the author’s version of its concept as "an ethnocultural phenomenon, which core is a set of technologies of influence in the form of psychological means of achieving information superiority". Technologies of deception, plan concealment, manipulation, disintegration, defragmentation, etc., including centuries of experience, modern developments in AI, DB, etc. set a disinformation character. The authorities’ call to "strengthen the armed forces and be ready for war" brought a different meaning to the concept of "soft power": "soft outside, but hard inside". The discursive-cognitive paradigm revealed the psychological essence of discourse, where cognitions "fly" in the form of texts, providing "cognitive construction of the world" in the media space. The cyberspace destruction takes on different shapes, turning information-psychological methods (stratagems, created content, etc.) into the most acute means of confrontation. Network operations based on the synthesis of "technical" and "human" technologies in cyberspace are perceived as a mean of counteraction and achieving information superiority.

Keywords

information-psychological confrontation, ethnocultural phenomenon, psychological operation, discrediting technology, information technology, digital technologies, cyberspace, network operations, destructive content,

About the Author

V. V. Sobolnikov

Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University
Russian Federation

Valery V. Sobolnikov – Doctor of Psychology, Professor at the Chair of General Psychology and History of Psychology

28 Viluyskaya str., 630126, Novosibirsk

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Supplementary files

For citation: Sobolnikov V.V. Information-psychological counteraction of China: a retrospective analysis. Professional education in the modern world. 2021;11(1):236-246. https://doi.org/10.20913/2618-7515-2021-1-21

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