When did the Chinese regime’s global disinformation campaign on the origin of the coronavirus begin and spread?

“It could be the US military that brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make your data public! The United States owe us an explanation! “

The incendiary message of Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, It was the opening bell of a disinformation war launched by the Xi Jinping regime that has spread around the world along with the coronavirus epidemic that started in Wuhan, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization March 11, 2020.

Nail investigation by the AP news agency and the digital forensic research laboratory (DRFLab, see full text below) revealed how the campaign launched by Lijian managed to spread to millions of people in an attempt to deflect attention and counter the solid data pouring in from China itself on the origin and potentially massive and deadly scope of the pandemic.

The analysis, based on a review of millions of social media posts and articles on Twitter, Facebook, VK, Weibo, WeChat, YouTube, Telegram and other platforms, takes place on the night of March 12, 2020, with a downpour of messages from the Chinese regime’s spokesperson, such as “The (Chinese Communist) Party’s first truly global digital experiment with open disinformation.”

The study reveals that Chinese diplomats have mobilized on Western social media platforms like never before: their Twitter accounts have tripled and Facebook accounts have doubled since late 2019, when both platforms were banned in China.

“When did patient zero start in the United States?” tweeted Zhao this March 12: “How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It could be the US military that brought the outbreak to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make your data public! The United States owe us an explanation! “, he insisted.

The tentacles of the Chinese global messaging machine were then activated, with figures that outline the plan: The 11 tweets that Zhao posted between March 12 and 13, more than 99000 times for the next six weeks, in at least 54 languages, according to DFRLab analysis. The accounts they referred to had almost 275 million subscribers, a number that could include duplicate subscribers and fake accounts.

Even conservative American leaders have helped spread their criticism of Zhao and have delivered his tweets to an even larger and more diverse audience. AP and DRFLab mention Donald Trump Jr.

But Beijing machines have opted for more: the Global Times newspaper and at least 30 diplomatic accounts of the Xi Jinping regime, from France to Panama, supported Zhao. The Venezuelan foreign minister and Russian network correspondent RT in Caracas, as well as Saudi accounts close to the royal family, also significantly expanded the reach of their messages, which helped launch his ideas in Spanish and Arabic.

His accusations were treated without criticism in the Russian and Iranian state media and were echoed on QAnon discussion forums. But its largest audience is by far in China itself, despite the fact that Twitter is banned there. Popular hashtags on his message storm have been viewed 314 million times on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Late on the night of March 13, Zhao posted a message of gratitude on his personal Weibo: “Thank you for your support, let’s work hard for the motherland 💪!”

The hands of Russia and Iran

According to the investigation, China has relied on Russia’s disinformation strategy and infrastructure, using a network established by the Kremlin to sow and disseminate information. Russian state media were the first to legitimize the theory that the United States designed the virus as a weapon. Russian politicians have joined the chorus.

“One amplified the other … How much was controlled by senior officers, how much was accidental, it was very difficult to determine,” said Janis Sarts, director of NATO’s Center of Excellence in Strategic Communications. , based in Riga, Latvia. .

Iran also intervened. On the same day that Zhao tweeted that the virus could have come from the US military, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that COVID-19 could be the result of a biological attack. He then used this conspiracy to justify the rejection of US COVID-19 aid.

The campaign continued with the Chinese state media apparatus, which, ten days after Zhao’s first conspiratorial tweets, took action: “Has the US government intentionally concealed the reality of COVID-19 ? ” asked for a suggestive Mandarin editorial published by China Radio International on March 22. “Why was the US Army Infectious Disease Medical Research Institute in Ft. Detrick, Md., Its largest biochemical testing base, closed in July 2019?”

In a few days, versions of the article appeared more than 350 times in the regime’s state media, mainly in Mandarin, but also worldwide in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic, according to an AP survey.

The Chinese Embassy in France promoted the story on Twitter and Facebook. It has been featured on YouTube, Weibo, WeChat, and a host of Chinese video platforms including Haokan, Xigua, Baijiahao, Bilibili, iQIYI, Kuaishou, and Youku. A musical version was broadcast on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

The investigation concludes that in April 2020, Russia and Iran largely abandoned the open campaign to promote the biological weapons conspiracy theory, but China continued.

In January 2021, as a team from the World Health Organization examined records in China in an attempt to identify the origins of the virus, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged the United States to “open the Fort Detrick biological laboratory, to give more transparency to issues such as its more than 200 biological laboratories abroad, which invite WHO experts to trace the origin (of covid-19) in the USA “.

His comments have gone viral in China. Amid the blatant campaigns, the ministry told the AP agency that it resolutely opposes the dissemination of conspiracy theories. “We have never done it before and we will not do it in the future”, they assure.

Here is the full report published by the DRFLab:

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