China’s information warfare extends far beyond coronavirus

The Chinese Communist Party remains adamant its handling of COVID-19 was exemplary. So why are they stifling criticism and enlisting trolls to spread confusion and lies, asks James Morrow.

For a country that aspires to be a world-leading superpower, China is awfully thin skinned.

Ever since the coronavirus pandemic kicked off, Chinese consulates and embassies around the world have been working overtime, firing off aggrieved letters professing the deepest hurt on behalf of the entire Chinese people any time someone suggests that the lies and evasions of the country’s communist leadership made the problem of the virus inestimably worse.

And that’s before we talk about the Chinese Communist Party’s silencing of whistleblowers who tried to sound the alarm – with at least two of them still missing and presumed somewhere being taught to love Big Brother.

Or their sending faulty medical aid to countries around the world. Or their buying up of medical supplies in countries like Australia. Or their attempts to sell those same products back to the world at vastly inflated prices … you get the idea.

The fact is, if they were simply playing a defensive PR game, the Chinese government could be excused. But they’re not.

If the CCP was simply playing a defensive PR game, they could be excused. But they’re not. Picture: Xie Huanchi/AP

In the last week disturbing information has come to light detailing the efforts of online operatives linked to the Chinese government to leverage the coronavirus crisis to spread distrust, fear, and division around the globe.

Far from just fighting for their reputation, reports suggest China is engaged in a massive information war to spread chaos and division in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic which (and again, apologies to any sensitive CCP members out there reading) in fact originated in Wuhan.

In the Middle East, according to translations provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, China has been beaming in Arabic-language programming blaming the US for starting the coronavirus.

This echoes the conspiracy theory tweeted out by China’s foreign ministry spokesman last month accusing US athletes in Wuhan for a sporting competition of being the true source of the virus.

And while that sort of nonsense is easily dismissed there are other reports that the Chinese information machine is also trying to spread distrust and discord in the West.

In March, Americans began receiving hoax emails saying President Trump was preparing to lock down the country. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

The New York Times reported this week that in mid-March Americans started receiving hoax messages that the president was preparing to lock down the country.

One, which cited a “source” in Homeland Security, said, “They will announce this as soon as they have troops in place to help prevent looters and rioters … he said he got the call last night and was told to pack and be prepared for the call today with his dispatch orders.”

At the same time, a report by the US State Department found that China was co-ordinating its efforts with nations like Russia and Iran – both of which, ironically, have been hard hit both by the coronavirus’s health effects and the subsequent crash in oil prices which threatens to smash the economies of the petroleum-rich nations.

According to the State Department’s Global Engagement Centre, the co-ordination effort “has accelerated as the pandemic increasingly impacts the world” – and includes hoovering up images of Western health care workers wearing bin liners for lack of protective gear and videos of chaotic hospital wards to send the message to their own oppressed domestic audiences that “you don’t know how good you’ve got it”.

Xi Jinping has been very explicit about his goals for his country to lead the world. Picture: Xie Huanchi/AP

This was backed up by a report released Thursday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which detailed a “loosely co-ordinated pro-China trolling campaign on Twitter (which has) harassed Western media outlets, impersonated Taiwanese users … (and) spread false information about the COVID-19 outbreak”.

But forewarned is forearmed, and just by knowing what our rivals are up to and how they are trying to get into our heads blunts their power.

Xi Jinping has been very explicit about his goals for his country to lead the world, and knows that a head to head conflict would likely see his country come off second best – and potentially be so catastrophic that his goal to make China a broadly prosperous superpower impossible.

But information warfare (as well as economic warfare) is a far less costly means by which a rising power like China can seek to destabilise and perhaps even topple its stronger Western adversaries.

The past week suggests at least one side in this conflict is charging ahead.

James Morrow is the opinion editor of The Daily Telegraph.