In an immediate response to an accusatory State Department report, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing shot back, labeling the US claims of its expanding disinformation efforts as “disinformation in itself.”
The State Department made headlines this week when it published a report alleging that Beijing was intensifying its attempts to control information and propagate propaganda that encourages “digital authoritarianism” both within China and globally.
The contentious report, rolled out by the Global Engagement Center, claims that China invests billions of dollars every year in foreign information manipulation. It highlighted concerns over an apparent increase in efforts under the leadership of Xi Jinping to shape the global information environment.
According to the report, China is steadily growing as a monumental military competitor and key player in the contest of global disinformation and ideological warfare.
However, China promptly rebuffed these allegations. In a statement released two days later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the specific branch of the United States State Department behind the report. “The relevant center of the US State Department has fabricated this report, and it is drenched in propaganda. Under the guise of ‘global engagement,’ it has become a fountainhead of disinformation and a war room for 'perception warfare',” they said.
Drawing parallels to the wars in Iraq and Syria, and US reports alleging human rights transgressions in China’s Xinjiang province, the ministry further argued that the US, in essence, is an ‘empire of lies.’
“No matter how the US attempts to affix the ‘disinformation’ tag on other nations, the world is increasingly witnessing the US's distasteful attempt to perpetuate its supremacy by spinning lies into 'emperor’s new clothes' and defaming others,” the Ministry declared.
