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The US Congress has requested regular updates from intelligence agencies, military and State Department on the Chinese government’s ongoing influence operations under the 2022 Defense Authorisation Bill.
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Media outlets have outlined that the reports will cover not only the mechanisms used by Beijing to conduct influence operations, but also how the US has responded.
The impact of such operations were acutely evidenced in recent weeks with a renewed push by Beijing to blame the current COVID-19 pandemic on the US, with some efforts backfiring.
In early August, Chinese media outlets were caught out citing a fake Swiss scientist “Wilson Edwards”, who claimed that origin tracing for the recent pandemic was “politicised”.
The story hit a road bump when the Swiss embassy in Beijing denied that there was a Swiss citizen with the name “Wilson Edwards”.
Despite being caught out, state-sponsored Global Times doubled down on their accusations this week in an interview with Pakistani Yasir Habib Khan – founder of think tank Institute of International Relations and Media Research.
“Every intension has its deep-rooted history that gives foundation to spillover action. The reason behind the US' intention to manipulate origin-tracing efforts is never framed on the basis of logic and rationality. Instead, it originates out of fears of losing global dominance,” Khan said.
“Though China is not the claimant of superpower but the US is under threat that if China continues to spell its economic miracles with peace diplomacy, rule-based international law, equal-footed relations without any prejudice, America's lopsided world order will lose its steam soon.”
The requests for greater congressional oversight on Chinese influence operations came as the Centre for Information Resilience uncovered a network of over 350 fake social media profiles who sought to stir political divisions in the West. According to media outlets, some in the network seek to stir racial tensions in the US, while others denied ethnic cleansing in western China.
Benjamin Strick, who compiled the findings, said that "the aim of the network appears to be to delegitimise the West by amplifying pro-Chinese narratives".
[Related: Data from Microsoft Exchange hack to fuel Chinese AI ambitions]
