China blamed for spreading coronavirus panic

A global echo chamber created by Russian, Chinese and Iranian official campaigns is picking up and repeating unproven claims about the pandemic

Chinese President Xi Jinping. The US State Department uncovered an unprecedented level of co-operation between China, Russia and Iran in apreading disinformation. Picture: AP

Chinese operatives helped to spread text messages panicking millions of Americans into believing the country was going into military lockdown as Beijing turned to disinformation tactics previously used by Kremlin trolls, intelligence agencies have concluded.

Western agencies have been alarmed by a global echo chamber created by Russian, Chinese and Iranian official campaigns that picks up and repeats unproven claims about the pandemic, its origins and Western responses to it.

In a new report, the US State Department uncovered an unprecedented level of co-operation between the three countries on spreading disinformation, both opportunistic and by design.

The European External Action Service reached similar conclusions in its assessments, blaming Russian and Chinese “official and state-backed actors” for targeting European audiences with “conspiracy narratives” about the virus. The European report did not mention Iran.

The US was targeted in mid-March when text and WhatsApp messages warned of a looming national military lockdown “as soon as they have troops in place”. The messages spread so widely that the National Security Council was forced to rebut them as “FAKE”. The New York Times reported that the origin of the message was unclear but Chinese operatives helped it to reach millions of Americans, often using text messages, a tactic that is difficult for intelligence agencies to track.

Another conspiracy theory associated with Moscow and Beijing is that Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and philanthropist, created coronavirus with pharmaceutical companies.

Efforts to combat the misinformation were undermined by US President Donald Trump’s penchant for repeating conspiracy theories or labelling accurate accounts as fake, one diplomat said.

The State Department’s Global Engagement Centre, which drew up the report, noted that the convergence between Russian and Chinese disinformation “has accelerated as the pandemic increasingly impacts the world”.

The EEAS said Russia’s efforts seemed to be aimed at sowing disunity and undermining the West, but China’s were more concerned with deflecting blame for the pandemic.

Moscow and Beijing have raided foreign media for accounts of Western failures, including images of British health workers wearing bin liners as protective gowns, for domestic audiences.

Russia has honed in on evidence of European disunity after Italy and Spain’s pleas for debt support from the EU. It has also publicised Russian aid sent to other countries while ignoring reports questioning the quality of that help.

China’s global state television service used an Arabic language channel in the Middle East to push the theory that the US military brought the virus to Wuhan in October.

The Times