The Art of Storytelling in Authoritarian Regimes: Crafting State Narratives on Chinese Social Media

Abstract: This article examines how authoritarian regimes construct state narratives about politically consequential events. Building on the narrative policy framework and existing research on authoritarian propaganda, we propose two dimensions that shape narrative construction: legitimacy implications -- whether events enhance or threaten regime legitimacy, and citizen verification capacity -- the extent to which citizens can evaluate official narratives through alternative sources. Using quantitative narrative analysis of Chinese social media posts by government, state media, and celebrity accounts, we extract subject-verb-object (SVO) triplets to map dominant narrative structures across four major events. Our findings show that legitimacy implications of the event shape regime's efforts in storytelling and the beliefs highlighted in the narratives, while citizen's verification capacity could balance the strategic choice between a top-down manipulation and bottom-up responsiveness of state narratives. Together, the results reveal propaganda as a complex process of narrative construction adaptive to specific contexts, offering new insights into how dynamic storytelling sustains authoritarian resilience.