KUNMING, Sept. 7 — The Xinhua Institute, a think tank affiliated with Xinhua News Agency, has released a report titled “Colonization of the Mind — The Means, Roots, and Global Perils of U.S. Cognitive Warfare,” providing an in-depth analysis of the historical facts, the complex operational system, and far-reaching global perils of the U.S. mental colonization.
The report, released during the Global South Media and Think Tank Forum 2025 on Sunday, called on all countries, especially those in the Global South, to break off the shackles of mind, regain cultural confidence, and draw a diverse map of civilizations.
The colonization of the mind, it said, constitutes mental domination predicated on inequality and aimed at perpetuating inequality, mainly manifested in the forms of compulsory transformation, malicious manipulation, covert infiltration and long-term erosion. U.S. hegemonic dominance on the world’s political, economic and military scenes serves as the “hard prerequisites” for its ideological colonization, then the enabling conditions in language and culture, discourse narratives, mass media and academic research constitute its “soft foundation,” the report noted.
It added that U.S. activities to colonize the mind have a profound practical foundation and clear strategic planning, having gradually developed a comprehensive supporting system, covering strategic system, organizational system, value system, propaganda system, content system, and technological system.
With the development and upgrading of new technologies like artificial intelligence, the U.S. attempts to colonize the mind operate more covertly and have more extensive targets, thus the greater need for attention and vigilance of all peace-loving people, the report warned.
The report, from political, economic and cultural perspectives, reveals the grave harm that U.S. colonization of the mind has brought to world peace and development. It calls on countries to bust the myths of value, free themselves from dependence of the mind, and embark on a path of independent and autonomous development.
“The clash of civilizations should be replaced by their integration; the ice of confrontations should be melted away by exchanges and mutual understanding,” the report said. The Xinhua Institute, with policy research as its primary focus, has conducted forward-looking, strategic, and preparatory research on major domestic and global issues in recent years, producing numerous influential research outcomes.
Under the theme “Empowering Global South, Navigating Global Changes,” the Global South Media and Think Tank Forum 2025 gathers approximately 500 representatives from over 260 media outlets, think tanks and government agencies from 110 countries and regions, as well as international and regional organizations. (Xinhua)
