The European External Action Service’s (EEAS) StratCom division recently published a report that accused the Chinese government of aggressively spreading disinformation about COVID-19 through social media. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang responded to this completely unsubstantiated claim on Monday by reminding the world that “China is opposed to the creation and spreading of disinformation by anyone or any organisation. China is a victim of disinformation, not an initiator.”
The diplomat made an excellent point that deserves to be expanded upon so that others can better understand the perniciousness of the latest twist in the West’s ongoing information warfare campaign against China. The People’s Republic was the first country to record any COVID-19 cases, and accordingly, it was also the first to mandate strict social distancing regulations in an unprecedentedly bold attempt to contain this contagion. China never denied any of this; rather, it was very transparent and kept the world updated about everything.
Not only was China a victim of the coronavirus, however, but it’s now also the latest victim of the West’s information warfare too. The campaign against the People’s Republic is intended to shape international perceptions by accusing the country of what the West itself is guilty of, and that’s spreading disinformation about the pandemic. It’s Western officials and their media, not their Chinese counterparts, that have consistently disseminated contradictory and sometimes even outright false reports about the virus.
China has always taken an abundance of caution whenever its representatives report on the coronavirus, whereas their Western counterparts have a tendency to tell the public about unproven treatment methods and factually incorrect claims about the virus’ origin. The public is becoming very confused after receiving so many mixed messages from figures that they thought they could trust, hence why many of those same ones have now decided to blame China for the COVID-19 information chaos that they themselves created.
The purpose in doing so isn’t just to cover their tracks by eschewing responsibility for the widespread confusion that they caused (whether unwittingly or for deliberate reasons that can only be speculated upon at this time), but to concoct a conspiracy theory blaming China for the growing number of deaths and economic devastation caused by this virus. Blaming the victim isn’t just immoral, it’s also counterproductive since the global public is already well aware that China is actually a victim of both the virus and information warfare, not the guilty party.
It’s for this reason why the EEAS unconvincingly sought to misportray the popularity of its officials’ statements and articles from the country’s media as supposed proof of an aggressive disinformation campaign, claiming that China has deployed an army of bots to spread certain ideas throughout cyberspace. That’s not true, since this popularity is actually attributable to average people being receptive to the factual news and intriguing analyses coming from China, ergo why they’re so eagerly sharing them with others on social media.
Fewer and fewer people believe Western officials and their media, which is the West’s own fault for confusing their targeted audience with the mixed messages that they disseminated about COVID-19 over the past couple of months. It was an epic mistake for them to underestimate their people’s intelligence by assuming that they’ll automatically forget who was responsible for this disinformation just because China was abruptly blamed for it. For this reason, it can confidently be said that the EEAS’ disinformation report is ironically disinformation itself.
It’s therefore Western leaders and their media, not China, that are waging information warfare on the Western public. People are becoming more aware of this too, hence why they’re seeking out Chinese sources of information instead of Western ones. This scares their governments, though, since they fear that they’re losing their power to manipulate the population. As their desperation grows, it wouldn’t be surprising if they blame their disinformation victims just like they blamed China, which would only deepen society’s distrust of them.
Source: OneWorld
Loved that
China has a government of adults.
US, UK, EU goverments, not so much.
I think your diagnosis is all upside down. In my opinion, it is biased to the core. Try writing something like this in China about China, see where it will get you.
The initial claim by China the Wet Market was the source. How can they be certain when they rejected fears claimed by a Doctor working in a lab about his colleagues falling ill. Another thing, China has not managed to show the world how could a virus jump from live animal, in this case a Bat to a human. Taken from previous experience with SARS it is a quite likely Corona virus is lab accident.
China has also refused WHO or another international enquiry citing interference on an internal matter. It is legitimate to blame China for covering up the source as well as on the delay informing the world that the virus tends to spread from human to human. They need to come clean but seeing a controlling freak sitting at the head of an authoritarian system that is not going to happen. They find it challenging to manage democratic openness; therefore, trust for it does not come easy.
China does not play by the rules for world order. It is aiming to destroy the very system that allowed globalisation to make it the colossal economic powerhouse it is today. Hopefully, after this experience decoupling from the West is on the way.
No, not worth sharing.
Freddie Oufi is positively correct. Have always been an enormous fan of yours Korybko but you’ve fallen off the high-wire in your late analysis. True that Trump has a leap-before-you-look or “build your parachute on the way down” mentality but he’s been a prudent hawk towards the Chinese untamed fox. A suppressor of domestic dissent has no position for its ready, in the international arena. China doesn’t have a national concept of modus vivendi, is ruled by a fear-driven revanchist for whom retirement might convert to his death (at best, him spoiling his treasured and brandished self-image), and has demonstrated to have squandered (at minimum) three weeks before discovering human transmissibility.
Debated late information depicts that a WIV highly secure area was evacuated from roughly October 7 until October 24 based on telemetry recordings of mobile telephones.