Several Chinese influencers have sensationalized on social media that the United States is on the brink of a civil war. They are referring to the standoff between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the federal government over how to deal with illegal immigrants.
Even Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of Global Times, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, joined the discussion. “Isn’t it wonderful if it indeed turns into a civil war,” he wrote in a Weibo post.
Some posts even contained videos or pictures of fighting to support their narrative.
In late January, “Pioneer Lao Liu,” an influencer on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), posted a video saying that the civil war in Texas against the federal government had begun. The opening footage was a battle scene with narration, giving people the impression that a war was happening. But some netizens soon pointed out that it was fake, as the battle scene was part of a game raid.
Another influencer, “Plain Duke Zhao Sheng,” provided many details to make his fabricated news appear authentic.
In his Weibo post, he wrote, “The U.S. Army and the Texas National Guard are in a confrontation, with 25 states sending their National Guard to the front line to support Texas, along with at least 400 Humvees, 72 M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, and 48 M109 self-propelled grenade launchers. The governor of Texas has declared a ’state of war.’”
A large number of pictures of military vehicles accompanied the post.
However, these images originate from the official account of the Kansas National Guard on the social media platform X. The content of the original article is that the 1st Battalion, 635th Armor Regiment, and the 170th Logistics Support Company of the U.S. Army were conducting rail loading operations on M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, which would be shipped to Fort Bliss, Texas, to be used by the military overseas in support of the Operation Spartan Shield training exercises.
In addition, a video alleging that “thousands of trucks filled with volunteers driving into Texas to fight the U.S. military” has been circulated by Chinese influencers. But this video is a scene from February 2022, when American truck drivers organized a protest to reject COVID-19 restrictions.
China’s Internet censorship has always been harsh and strict, but this time, the communist authorities did not restrict the fake news about the “U.S. Civil War.”
Zhang Lei (pseudonym), a resident of China’s Henan Province, told the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times on Feb. 8 that these domestic influencers were able to spread false information about the U.S. because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using them for public opinion propaganda.
“For decades, whenever there is a natural or man-made disaster in the United States, the [Chinese] media, from CCTV to smaller media, will spare no effort to make a big fuss about it to create a false impression that the United States is in deep water and turmoil and that China is doing well. This is a propaganda tactic of the CCP,” Mr. Zhang said.
He also pointed out these influencers do not represent the majority of the Chinese people, although they act as if they do.
“There are many sober people, but they know they can’t express their views in public. If they do say anything, they will be in danger,” he said. “While those arguments that are in line with the CCP, such as supporting Russia, the Taliban, and the Palestinian terrorists, are not problematic in China. All these influencers are part of the CCP’s propaganda tools manipulated by the CCP, and their goal is to use public discourse to turn black into white.”
Mr. Zhang’s job requires him to travel a lot, and he comes into contact with people from all walks of life.
“Some sober people in China don’t want the United States to fall into chaos, and many have realized that the CCP’s propaganda is brainwashing and misleading, mixing up right and wrong. Therefore, there are quite a few people in China whose understanding of the United States and other countries is relatively objective. They are friendly toward the United States but can’t talk about it on social media because they risk being silenced or arrested if they express their real thoughts,” he said.
Lin Shengliang, a Chinese dissident living in Holland, believes that the CCP has always used propaganda and hype to divert attention from domestic social conflicts, and the recent propaganda about “an imminent civil war” is to divert attention from China’s stock market crash.
In an interview with The Epoch Times on Feb. 8, Mr. Lin pointed out that the CCP not only tolerates such fake news but even encourages or hires influencers to spread it.
“Xi Jinping tried to control the stock market but couldn’t. Many people in China have lost confidence and suffered great losses,” he said. “They don’t have a normal channel to express themselves, so many people flocked to the comment sections of the microblog accounts of the U.S., Japanese, and Indian embassies to seek help and vent their dissatisfaction with the Chinese authorities. It just so happened that the state government [of Texas] had a conflict with the federal government, so the CCP immediately took advantage of the situation to hype up fake news.”
