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ANALYSIS/ China and Russia increase cooperation on disinformation and propaganda

2023-03-07 09:03:24Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

ANALYSIS/ China and Russia increase cooperation on disinformation and propaganda

After a year of war in Ukraine, China and Russia have grown closer in the information space, often repeating each other's statements in state media, as part of a broader strategy to undermine the West, a new report says. .

The year-long study, conducted by the German Marshall Fund's Alliance for Securing Democracy, found that messaging from Chinese officials and Chinese media evolved after the launch of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 to provide "greater rhetorical cover for the Kremlin." despite Beijing's official position that it is a neutral party in the conflict.

"There has definitely been pro-Russian coverage, and China has reiterated pro-Russian positions since the beginning of the war, while also downplaying Russian war crimes and giving importance to Russian voices," researcher Etienne Soula told RFE/RL. in the Alliance for Securing Democracy, at the same time one of the authors of the report.

Given this surge in support, the report released on February 24 said China's "ability to use its global network of influence to undermine the West" gives it a powerful role to shift attitudes among of non-aligned states in the Global South.

"To weaken Western democracies and their allies, China has also sought to isolate those states by turning to the Global South," the report said. "In the context of the war in Ukraine, Chinese messages have repeatedly argued that the countries that support Ukraine are hypocritical and indifferent to the rest of the world."

Chinese-controlled media have not called the war an invasion and have instead used the Kremlin's terminology, referring to it as a "special military operation".

At times, Chinese media have pushed disinformation and popular conspiracy theories of Russian state channels, such as the United States has weapons labs in Ukraine, that the extrajudicial killings of civilians by Russian forces in Bucha is a hoax. Also, the Chinese media have suggested that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is controlled by the American billionaire, George Soros.

Buoyed by a decade of anti-Western propaganda and deepening ties that the two countries described as a "borderless" partnership before the invasion of Ukraine, China's state-controlled media have also helped spread the Kremlin's war narrative. , for audiences at home and abroad.

According to the report's analysis, this attitude has also appeared on social media accounts. Between February 24, 2022 and January 23, 2023, Chinese diplomacy and state-linked media Twitter accounts mentioned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "three times more" than Dmytro Kuleba, his Ukrainian counterpart. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been mentioned eight times more than Zelensky.

As the report said, Chinese media echoing Russia's narratives have also provided an opportunity to criticize the United States and reinforce Beijing's hawkish stances on American foreign policy.

In the first year of the war, Chinese diplomacy and state-affiliated media Twitter accounts mentioned the US twice as often as Russia when writing about the "war" and placed more emphasis on NATO, which "it was not a subject of attack in the Chinese media before the war."

In 2021, according to data from the Alliance for Securing Democracy, Chinese state media mentioned "NATO" in more than 1,200 tweets, with "expansion" of the Western military alliance included in only 52 tweets. After the Russian invasion, mentions of "NATO" and "enlargement" increased by more than 540 percent and 1,700 percent respectively.

Taiwan is another topic whose mention has increased since the Russian invasion, albeit in a way that has proved difficult for China's convergence with Russia in the information space.

Chinese accounts mentioning the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of it, in the same tweet as Ukraine occurred more than 500 times, although the report noted that the vast majority of those tweets were made by Chinese officials or media outlets that intended to make comparisons between these two countries. Beijing views Taiwan as its province and often cites respect for its "sovereignty and territorial integrity" as reasons why countries should not interact with Taipei as an independent state.

"China's support for Russia is not complete. The red line is that Chinese interests come first, regardless of everything else," said Soula. "This is quite clear whenever Taiwan is mentioned, and the positions are adamant to show that Ukraine and Taiwan are not the same thing, and in doing so, somehow refute Russia's narrative."

The report's findings echo statements made by James Rubin -- a coordinator at the Global Engagement Center, a US State Department body designed to "expose and counter" foreign propaganda -- during a European tour in early March, when he warned that the West has been slow to respond to China's emergence in the information sphere and Beijing's close ties with Moscow.

"We as a country and as the West have been slow to respond, and it's a fair judgment to say that we are facing a very, very big challenge," Rubin told reporters on February 28. "In the communications space, the alignment between China and Russia is almost complete."

The year that changed Russian-Chinese relations

China and Russia have invested heavily in attracting new audiences across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia over the past decade. Rubin claimed that these two countries have spent billions to expand their operations globally.

Chinese state media have played a central role in Beijing's efforts to influence other countries, to control information published about the Communist Party, and to be able to reinforce China's narratives about its policies and role in the world.

As the war in Ukraine continues, these narratives seem to be finding fertile ground in the Global South. A poll released in February by the European Council on Foreign Relations found that while most Western countries support Ukraine, respondents across the Global South were less supportive of the war and more supportive of Moscow's grievances and more suspicious of its motives. leaders of the West.

Soula said this means the growing convergence between Beijing and Moscow will expand, even if the two countries may not agree on every issue.

"The space of information is something not very big. "No one is saying that they will impose sanctions on China because it is supporting Russia," he said.

"This keeps Russia happy and also serves Beijing's broader interests, accelerating the decline of Western influence in countries like Africa, where China really has the capacity to fill the void left by Western powers."/ REL


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