US issues stern warning on China's global information efforts

China has invested billions of dollars to construct a global information ecosystem that promotes its "propaganda" and "disinformation", but the country has faced setbacks in democratic countries, a US State Department report alleged.

The report released on Thursday accused Beijing of "bending" the global information environment to its advantage, arguing that China was "leveraging propaganda and censorship, promoting digital authoritarianism, exploiting international organisations and bilateral partnerships, pairing co-optation and pressure, and exercising control over Chinese-language media."

"If successful, the PRC's [People's Republic of China] efforts could transform the global information landscape, creating biases and gaps that lead nations to make decisions that subordinate their economic and security interests to Beijing's," the report alleged.

Listing China's bid to shape the information arena, the State Department report said that China Central Television, a state outlet, provides free video footage and television scripts to 1,700 foreign news organisations and media groups, and "in many cases, content produced by PRC official media is repackaged for local outlets without branding that would identify it as coming from a foreign government."

Citing Thailand where local laws limit foreign media ownership, the report alleged, "one of China's leading technology companies created a local subsidiary run by Thai nationals to purchase Thailand's most popular news site with 30 million active monthly users."

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to TRT World's request for comment on the detailed report released by the State Department's Global Engagement Center.

"Written with a Cold-War mentality, the report is just another tool to keep China down and buttress American hegemony," CNN quoted Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu as saying.

US-China tensions

The report comes a day after a Senate staffer said that Chinese hackers who allegedly subverted Microsoft's email platform earlier this year managed to steal tens of thousands of emails from US State Department accounts.

China and US have resumed dialogue in recent months amid continued tension between the world's two largest economies over issues ranging from Taiwan, Ukraine, US curbs on exported chips to China to new restrictions on US investments in sensitive Chinese technologies.

"By exposing the PRC’s information manipulation, we hope to empower governments, civil society, academia, the press, and the private sector to more effectively collaborate in their efforts to protect the integrity of the information space," Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesperson said.

In Africa, the State Department report said, China has become a leading provider of digital television services in the continent through StarTimes — one of the leading digital TV operators in Africa.

"By controlling cable TV service providers," the report said, Beijing gains the power to determine which stations viewers can access by excluding Western news channels from basic packages.

As of 2021, the State Department report said, "almost 100 influencers disseminated official PRC messaging in at least two dozen languages on multiple social media platforms to a combined audience of over 11 million followers in dozens of countries."

Citing a 2021 report by Lithuania, the State Department said that phones manufactured by China's corporation Xiaomi had a default capability to censor a list of at least 449 phrases.

Accusing China of constraining global freedom of expression, the report said, over 1,000 pro-China accounts sought to bury a report by the Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders detailing the presence and activities of 100 "overseas police service stations" in 53 countries linked to local Chinese public security authorities across multiple jurisdictions.

Blocking criticism of Beijing

The US report also accused China of promoting an emerging community of "digital authoritarians," saying Beijing exports digital ecosystems like "smart" or "safe" cities to assist in surveillance.

"As of June 2021, 163 global smart city-public security projects involved PRC firms that have operations in Xinjiang [ Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region]."

As of 2019, the report said, China's information controls had spread to 102 countries.

"In 11 of these countries, the deepest diffusion of PRC information control tactics resulted in imitation, or outright replication, of PRC information control laws and techniques."

The report also accused China of using WeChat, WeiXin, and TikTok – applications popular outside and within China — to block criticism of Beijing.

The US has described China as its top competitor, with top diplomat Antony Blinken earlier on Thursday saying that Beijing was determined to replace the United States as the world's top power.