This is more of a direct response to Internet as a political weapon, which matured in the weaponized social media in Arab Spring [1] as the regime-changing tool used by Hilary Clinton, who eventually becomes the victim in the 2016 presidential election.

Thanks to its long-standing "controlled by CCP in order to do business" practices, China enjoys a very strong position to be less vulnerable to potential external Internet propaganda.

CCP learned this, and start to use various online forum to spread its own world view and alternative reporting on various Chinese domestic and international affairs. So far it looks like it actually helps to supply diverse views on issues like eliminating poverty, development strategy for poor country, etc. I still not see much hard evidences of proactive propaganda campaign from CCP towards foreign nations.

[1] https://www.npr.org/2018/10/09/655824435/the-weaponization-o...