Yves here. John Helmer engages in informational hygiene in questioning the bona fides of a cluster of Chinese commentators targeting Western audiences who are selling what he describes as agitprop based on careful study of what works with easily duped Americans (Americans really are quite susceptible, Alex Carey’s book Taking the Risk Out of Democracy argues that explicitly). Now why is a Russia-focused reporter and commentator interested in this topic? Apparently this school of Chinese messaging takes up a variant of a Russia-diminishing theme often presented in the West, particularly in the Foreign Affairs/Council for Foreign Relations crowd, that Russia...