Falsehoods in US Perceptions of China

Reality Check (Part 13 of 21) Falsehoods in US Perceptions of China https://english.news.cn (June 19 2022) Part 12 is at https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/2022/07/08/reality-check-part-12-of-21/ Falsehood 13 Chinese government officials spread disinformation. Reality Check China is the top victim of disinformation, while the US is the biggest source of spreading disinformation. * With sharp confrontation between the Republicans and Democrats, habitual lying, finger-pointing, and blame-shifting among politicians have become part of the US political ecology. A poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Pearson Institute at the University of Chicago reveals that nearly half of the respondents blame the US government for the spread of misinformation. * The US has used disinformation to launch multiple wars across the globe in pursuit of its hegemonic agenda. Colin Powell, the then US Secretary of State accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction with a test tube of "laundry powder". The US blamed the Syrian government for using biochemical weapons against its own people with fake videos by the White Helmets. In 2019, the then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly claimed that "we lied, we cheated, we stole ... we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment." On 4 May 2022, Republican Senator Rand Paul spoke bluntly at a Senate hearing, "Do you know who the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world is? The US government." * Manipulation by US politicians has seriously undercut the media's credibility. A Gallup poll in 2020 shows that 60 percent of Americans remain largely distrustful of the media, among whom 33 percent have no trust at all, which is 5 percentage points higher than that of 2019. * The US has on multiple occasions fabricated numerous lies and rumors on issues concerning origins-tracing, Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, democracy, and human rights, including the so-called "lab-leak theory", "genocide" and "forced labor", which have all been defeated by facts. Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, the US has kept spreading disinformation about China and made unfounded accusations against it, in order to shirk its responsibilities for triggering the conflict with Nato's eastward expansion. The New York Times quoted anonymous US senior officials who claimed that China had prior knowledge of Russian military operation in Ukraine. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Representative to the UN, said at a Security Council meeting that China had been spreading disinformation in support of Russia. This is sheer fabrication and slandering. Meanwhile, as part of the fierce hunt on voices different from its own, the US has added special labels to Tweets sharing links to Chinese media reports, while turning a blind eye to the Western media that are actually telling the lies. * The US has used disinformation as a political tool to attack and suppress China, and formed a supply chain of anti-China rhetoric combining dirty funding, fact-twisting stories, and massive smear campaigns. On the surface, this anti-China rhetoric comes from certain media outlets and politicians, but what lies underneath is a massive capital-driven supply chain - some institutions and organizations from the US and other Western countries provide dirty funding for political purposes to anti-China groups and individuals, some think-tanks and academic institutions make up fact-twisting stories to fuel anti-China rhetoric around the world through Western hegemony on public opinion, and politicians and media act as mouthpieces propagating lies and falsehoods about China in massive smear campaigns. Adrian Zenz and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), both fabricators of numerous Xinjiang-related lies, are typical examples of such "lie-manufacturers". Adrian Zenz is a member of a far-right group founded by the US government and a key member of an anti-China research institute set up and manipulated by the US intelligence agency. His so-called reports on Xinjiang reflect no credibility, intellectual merit, or academic integrity at all. As disclosed by the media, the US State Department and arms manufacturers are the primary foreign sponsors for the ASPI. Funding from the US State Department alone reached nearly 1.4 million Australian dollars a year, all directed to research projects attacking China. The ASPI disseminated a series of lies and disinformation on issues concerning origins-tracing, Xinjiang, and data security. * In addition to constantly spreading disinformation on China, the US has also rolled out measures to suppress and contain China based on such disinformation, including China-related bills and sanctions. In December 2021, under the pretext of its so-called concerns on "forced labor", the US signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law, imposing a full ban on imports from Xinjiang. This is a malicious move to denigrate the human rights situation in Xinjiang, and a serious violation of international law and basic norms of international relations. * China has used facts and figures to tell the truth and refute the lies and rumors created and propagated by the US. It is aimed at making truth heard, not spreading disinformation. Instead of observing basic facts, the US has acted in its own interests and labeled all views different from its own as "disinformation". This is, in essence, hegemony and bullying in the field of public opinion. Source: fmprc.gov.cnEditor: huaxia2022-06-19 22:19:29 https://english.news.cn/20220619/edf2556087954b8d90440b077a3c3c21/c.html