made to increase the company’s Twitter following, was for a sum of approximately $175,000 (Kao and Li, 2020). Some of these companies often approach established influencers with relatively large followings and offer them money in exchange for posting content. Compensation for individual influencers varies according to the size of their following, and potentially, also their geography. Evidence shows that some users were offered between $60 to $360 per post for sharing a photo or video. One Chinese-Australian artist with a Twitter following of seventy thousand was offered $240 to post a fifteen-second clip showing the Chinese government defeated the pandemic (Ibid). Other evidence suggests that the Chinese government has launched a new project with a contract worth $1 million to operate and help grow its overseas social media accounts (Quartz Staff, 2019). The Cyberspace Administration of China asked that the team be comprised of at least six people who could “tell China’s stories with multiple angles, express China’s voice, and get overseas audience recognition and support for Xi Jinping thought.” This is thought to be part of a wider approach to China’s public diplomacy to “tell China’s story well” mentioned in a speech by president Xi Jinping in 2013. This wider strategy is focused on using China’s own communication channels to promote official Chinese views and opinions and to strengthen China’s international influence (Huang & Wang, 2019). The contract between the China News Service and the winning bidder OneSight asked for more specific goals, including increasing Twitter followers by 580,000 within six months, and that at least 8% of these followers need to come from North America, Australia, and New Zealand. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out a similar project for 3.38 million yuan ($480,000) on 21June 2019, five days after two million Hong Kong protestors called for full withdrawal of the extradition bill and for an inquiry into allegations of police brutality. The newspaper Global Times was found to win the contract (Ibid). Analysts at the US-based cybersecurity firm FireEye have alleged that the Chinese government divides the focus of its various cyber units based on their skill level. Thus, those focused on Hong Kong and Taiwan, places of specific and immediate interest for China, are the highest skilled operatives. Operatives considered to be “more persistent than skilled” worked in units that focused on Southeast Asia and other regions, which are relatively less crucial for Chinese interests (Magnier, 2020). China’s 50-cent army reportedly numbers between 500,000 and 2 million (King et al., 2017). Table 3: Cyber Troop Capacity in China Team Size Resources Spent (USD) Activity Levels Around six 175,000$ to increase employees for Government news agency the CAC “China News Service” project to boost Twitter followers. China social Between 60-360$ paid to media presence influencers per post, abroad. At least “50-cent army” paid workers 500,000 receive 0.70 $ per post members of the $ 1 million contract to boost “50-cent China social media presence army”. and influence abroad 76 Coordination Capacity Measure 900 core accounts working Permanent on the Hong Kong protests and over 200,000 automated accounts, Information from 2009 estimated around 500,000 workers in the “50-cent army” that produce around 488,000000 posts a year. High