Information technologies have long been viewed by Beijing as architecture of social management. The new WeChat platform allows for more personalized interaction and negotiation between the public and government, with little political consequence.

Contrary to America’s desire to impose universal values on the rest of the world, China’s nationalism does not inform or direct its foreign policy. This is exemplified by the institutional contrasts between the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and China’s Confucius Institutes.