More projection from the US. There is one country that spends by far more than any other on manipulating the global media and it’s the US, with the UK in second place. China and Russia don’t even come close.
I’ve always found it hilarious how people in the west are always worried about Russian and Chinese propaganda while they’re swimming in US propaganda.
Russian media literally ostracized and outright blocked in much of the west but somehow they waging a successful propaganda campaign, just a laughable contradiction.
There’s a funny quip from Chomsky on how the west has more censorship now than USSR did back in the 70s https://scheerpost.com/2022/07/30/video-is-u-s-censorship-worse-than-soviet-russia/
I’ve always found it hilarious how people in the west are always worried about Russian and Chinese propaganda while they’re swimming in US propaganda.
The average “nonpolitical” US citizen swims in US propaganda so much that they don’t notice it unless they see a politically skinned person in a treat.
exactly
Seriously. And yet they’ll blame racist, far-right comments on being Chinese and Russian bots sowing dissent. I do find it interesting that these two countries are the source of all right-wing propaganda while right-wingers in other countries keep waving confederate flags, screaming about the first amendment, buying into Qanon, and putting up monuments for people like Kyle Rittenhouse.
Chinese diplomacy is usually extremely restrained so “empire of lies” is a pretty huge shift in tone.
Indeed, we’re seeing China taking an increasingly assertive position towards the US. It’s pretty clear that China feels confident enough that they will be able to resist whatever US throws at them.
This is the full response: https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/202309/t20230930_11154141.html
Q: The US Department of State released a report on September 28, claiming that China has invested billions of dollars to spread disinformation globally. It says that China’s “global information manipulation” is not simply a matter of public diplomacy – but a challenge to the integrity of the global information space, and if unchecked, Beijing’s efforts could result in a sharp contraction of global freedom of expression in the future. What is China’s response?
A: The US Department of State report is in itself disinformation as it misrepresents facts and truth. In fact, it is the US that invented the weaponizing of the global information space. The relevant center of the US State Department which concocted the report is engaged in propaganda and infiltration in the name of “global engagement”. It is a source of disinformation and the command center of “perception warfare”. From Operation Mockingbird which bribed and manipulated news media for propaganda purposes in the Cold War era, to a vial of white powder and a staged video of the “White Helmets” cited as evidence to wage wars of aggression in Iraq and Syria earlier this century, and then to the enormous lie made up to smear China’s Xinjiang policy, facts have proven time and again that the US is an “empire of lies” through and through. Even some in the US, such as Senator Rand Paul, acknowledged that the US government is the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world.
Some in the US may think that they can prevail in the information war as long as they produce enough lies. But the people of the world are not blind. No matter how the US tries to pin the label of “disinformation” on other countries, more and more people in the world have already seen through the US’s ugly attempt to perpetuate its supremacy by weaving lies into “emperor’s new clothes” and smearing others.
