CHINA PROMOTES ANTI-TRUMP BOOK
China’s government propaganda outlets are actively promoting the anti- President Trump book released this week by Washington Post writer Bob Woodward, called “Fear.”
Two days after excerpts of the book were published, major Chinese state-run propaganda outlets, including China Central Television (CCTV), ran extensive reports on the book on Sept. 6.
The book derides Mr. Trump as unhinged and claims there has been an administration coup d’etat by senior aides, who conspired against the president and blocked his policies.
CCTV produced five reports on its website, noting Mr. Trump’s reaction to the book and his suggestion, according to the book, to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system to protect the United States.
“Watergate journalist’s new book infuriates Trump,” read another headline in CCTV, adding, “the White House is shaking.” The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the White House was “shaking” in fear over the book. The official People’s Daily reported similar White House fears and noted that Mr. Trump was infuriated by the book.
CCTV-4, the international channel with an estimated viewership of 65 million people, issued two on-air reports on the critical book. Another propaganda channel, CCTV-13 also reported on the book.
The China Daily, another Communist Partyaffiliated outlet, reported on Sept. 5 that the book is “as deadly as a White House palace drama, forcing Trump to tweet seven times to ‘put out a fire.’”
An analysis of search engine traffic on Baidu, the Chinese search engine, revealed that web traffic on “Fear” surged during the early-September coverage. All the reports presented the book cover.
The CIA-led Open Source Enterprise, which translates foreign news reports, so far has ignored all the negative Chinese reporting on the anti-Trump book, according to a government source.
The main points of the broadcasts and web postings were that the book had revealed chaos and dysfunction in the White House as a result of Mr. Trump’s leadership style.
The Chinese also played up Mr. Woodward’s contention — denied by Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis — that Mr. Trump ordered an airstrike to kill Syrian dictator Bashar Assad but was overruled.
The reports also noted that two now-departed White House advisers pilfered a document from Mr. Trump’s desk to prevent him from pulling out of a U.S.-South Korea free trade accord.
The theme behind the Chinese propaganda blitz is evidence in at least one reference in the reports to Mr. Woodward’s investigation of the Watergate scandal of the 1970s that led to President Nixon’s resignation.
Chinese state media until recently have avoided criticism of Mr. Trump but have stepped up their propaganda against the president since the trade battle over tariffs heated up.
China is said to be working to undermine Mr. Trump by seeking Democratic victories in the upcoming midterm elections with the hope that House control will shift and a Democratic-majority House would proceed with impeachment.
The new book drew harsh denunciations from the president and key advisers.
“The Woodward book is a Joke — just another assault against me, in a barrage of assaults, using now disproven unnamed and anonymous sources,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
“Many have already come forward to say the quotes by them, like the book, are fiction. Dems can’t stand losing. I’ll write the real book!”
The president insisted in another tweet that the White House is a “smooth running machine.”
“We are making some of the biggest and most important deals in our country’s history — with many more to come! The Dems are going crazy!” he tweeted.
Mr. Trump has held back from criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he frequently refers to as a friend.