Don’t believe China’s lies about Ukraine
The bloody conflict in Ukraine is yet again illustrating the pernicious way state actors use propaganda to shape public opinion. Canadians have learned to be wary of Russia’s disinformation about the war. Now we need to also be wary about China’s support for Russia’s falsehoods. China’s United Front Work Department is attempting to manage public opinion at home and abroad by blaming the conflict on the United States and NATO.
China has a vast, active propaganda machine. Its efforts to shape world opinion and distract from China’s human rights and freedom of speech abuses have increased significantly since Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2012.
That machine is hard at work here in Canada. For example, the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations invited Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu to speak in April 2021. Why would that invitation be extended, knowing that he would use the opportunity to spread Beijing’s disinformation? That’s exactly what he did by claiming that Canada’s “two Michaels” (Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were jailed in China) were “secretly gathering state’s secrets and intelligence for foreign forces” when in fact they were hostages, arrested as leverage against Canada for the release of a detained Chinese executive, Meng Wanzhou.
Equally troubling are China’s attempts to influence Canadian elections. As the research agency Disinfowatch reported, “The Chinese government has repeatedly demonstrated its readiness to advance its interest in Canada by directly manipulating Canadian political debate and policy through the use of disinformation, threats, intimidation, and influence operations directed at Canadian diaspora groups.”
China also targets individual Canadians of Chinese origin with threats and intimidation tactics if they dare to criticize China’s conduct. Such interference activities, conducted by Chinese officials in Canada, have multiplied since Xi Jinping took power.
Seeing China at work in propaganda warfare on Russia’s side should be a chilling reminder here in Canada about how any information that originates from Chinese sources, both in the government and in the media, must be viewed with suspicion if not rejected outright.
The next likely example will be the trial of James (Jianhua) Xiao, a Chinese-born Canadian citizen who was abducted by Chinese government agents in Hong Kong in January 2017 and has been detained without charges ever since. The speculative narrative coming out of China is that his company, Tomorrow Group, engaged in bribery and stock manipulation.
What is really at play is that Tomorrow Group became too successful, just like what happened to Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who disappeared for three months. However, it will likely be reported that Xiao has confessed to crimes, admitted guilt and expressed remorse for the damage caused by his actions. Canadians should take such admissions with a grain of salt, if not a whole bag of it.
It takes a very strong-willed individual to resist more than five years of the interrogation tactics used by Chinese security officials. The book published by Kevin and Julia Garratt, “Two Tears on the Window: An Ordinary Canadian Couple Disappears in China. A True Story,” outlines the long interrogation sessions and the incessant psychological pressure they were subjected to. Xiao is likely enduring something similar. Resulting show trial convictions are purely to serve the propaganda goals of the Chinese state, and bear no relation to justice.
Those propaganda goals now include support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to The New York Times, which reported that China’s “diplomats
and official journalists have become combatants in the informational war to legitimize Russia’s claims and discredit international concerns about what appear to be war crimes.”
Separately, The Financial Times reported that, “The internet platforms of tech giants in China are promoting content backing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine while suppressing posts that are sympathetic to Kyiv.” It added, “False reports of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy fleeing Kyiv and Ukrainian troops surrendering were shared widely in China.”
In February, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Canadian cable television providers admirably cancelled the Russian government propaganda outlet RT America from their service packages. Given China’s support for Russia’s war, there is now a danger that the gap will be filled by Chinese government media, serving as a disinformation proxy for Russia.
Notably, the Chinese stateowned agency China International Communications Co. has Canadian TV news service privileges through Mandarin-language CCTV-4 and English language CGTN. The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division required CGTN to register under “Foreign Agents Registration Act” in 2018 due to “clear attempts to influence political and public interests for the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese Government.”
Canadians should be very wary of what we hear and read from such services and from Chinese representatives, and we should think twice about giving China platforms that only enable Beijing to propagate its untruthful narratives.