TIKTOK, YOUTUBE, AND DIGITAL NARRATIVES: THE NEW-GENERATION SOFT-POWER TOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA

This article examines how short-video and long-form video platforms—principally TikTok and YouTube—have become central instruments of great-power competition between the United States and China. Drawing on recent analytics and survey data from Pew Research Center, Statista, CSIS, Brookings Institution, and specialised diplomacy and media-studies outlets, it argues that the locus of soft-power contestation has shifted from state-run broadcasting and formal cultural diplomacy toward algorithmically mediated, creator-driven narrative ecosystems. The article compares platform architectures, audience metrics, and strategic doctrines that underpin American and Chinese approaches, and discusses the 2026 TikTok divestiture as a pivotal case demonstrating how digital-platform governance itself has become a soft-power battleground. While China pursues a coordinated model blending entertainment, lifestyle appeal, and narrative curation, the United States relies increasingly on a decentralised creator ecosystem amid institutional retrenchment in formal public diplomacy. Both models face distinct vulnerabilities, yet together they define the emerging infrastructure of global influence in the twenty-first century.