Social media platforms are major tools being utilized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as part of its global disinformation campaign that aims to manipulate the narrative surrounding the pandemic in their favor.
Countless articles and op-eds—often peddling false conspiracy theories about the CCP virus or pushing blame onto the United States—are being posted through Facebook and Twitter by China’s state-run media accounts. At the same time, a considerable number of Chinese diplomats are actively pushing state-sanctioned narratives on their own social media accounts.
The Epoch Times reached out to spokespersons at Twitter and Facebook but didn’t receive a response about whether the companies were aware of the disinformation campaign, how they were countering it, or if they had plans to.
“China clearly sees itself in a long-term struggle for political influence that predates the coronavirus pandemic, and will continue long after it is resolved,” Lohman told The Epoch Times.
Walsh said the CCP is also likely attempting “to convince its own people”—not just other countries—by attempting to seed the conspiracy that the virus came from the United States.
People in China don’t have access to these social media platforms and are fed a constant stream of propaganda by the communist regime there. Although the narratives pushed by China can change quickly, the goals are the same: to defect responsibility over their botched handling of the CCP virus and to portray an image that they have successfully contained the outbreak.
“It is not very surprising, although the brazenness is,” Lohman said, referring to the disinformation. “China has long had a political warfare task, pursued against Taiwan, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Falun Gong, and other perceived enemies of the Chinese state.”
The United States is seen by China as its foremost competitor, Lohman said. China is also “likely to be engaging in what it perceives as tit-for-tat behavior” in its trade war with the United States, which has “attacked a key pillar of CCP legitimacy.”
Another reason is that Trump has repeatedly referred to China as the source of the CCP virus, which emerged in Wuhan in December 2019, and Beijing is intent on avoiding being held responsible, he said.
It is difficult to ascertain the reality of the situation in China, Lohman said.
“In a nation the size of China, with 1.3 billion people, it is hard to imagine that coronavirus has been eradicated and that all new cases are being imported,” he said.
Combating Propaganda
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) wrote in a March 20 letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that Chinese officials should be banned from the platform.“By banning Twitter in China, the Chinese Communist Party is keeping its citizens in the dark. By putting propaganda on Twitter, the Chinese Communist Party is lying to the rest of the world,” the lawmakers wrote.
They said the propaganda that obfuscates the CCP virus’s origin “potentially undermines efforts to contain and control the outbreak“ and that ”this behavior more than warrants their removal from the platform.”
The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mishandling of the epidemic, which started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.