The CIA operation, as noted by Reuters, started back in 2019 and was aimed at causing paranoia in Xi Jinping’s government by increasing the amount of negative news related to him.

To do this, CIA agents allegedly created fake accounts on social networks and spread rumors that members of the Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten wealth outside the country. The accounts also criticized the initiatives of the Chinese government and claimed that the program for financing infrastructure projects in other countries was corrupt.

The CIA did not comment, so reporters cannot confirm whether the program is still active today. It is reported that it was initiated by Donald Trump and spread to the regions of Southeast Asia, Africa and the South Pacific Ocean. China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which provides grants and loans for infrastructure projects in developing countries in these regions, was one of the targets of the CIA program.

State propaganda and the use of bots in social networks is nothing new – Russia has a whole bunch of bot farms that try to influence public opinion in both Ukraine and the USA. Last year, Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted to creating a group of fake accounts to interfere in the US elections. Also in 2023, Rolling Stone wrote that a fake far-right publication was created in China, which promoted fake stories to European users of social networks. Meanwhile, US politicians seeking to ban TikTok say the Chinese government could use the social media platform to spy on or influence users.

DeepSeek — China’s equivalent of ChatGPT — removes questions about Tiananmen Square and any Winnie the Pooh queries

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