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How the US uses Russia-Ukraine conflict to smear China

By Meng Zhe and Xu-Pan Yiru | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-02-27 16:07

On Feb 19, stories about China considering providing "lethal support" to Russia dominated Western media headlines. But China Daily's Media Unlocked team found that Western media rely on anonymous sources, echo chambers, and double standards to make up unsubstantiated claims to smear China.

At least 46 stories on the topic appeared on Feb 19, repeating the claim from the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken without providing evidence. The number almost doubled from the previous day. On the same day, US Vice-President Kamala Harris warned China against supporting Russia at the annual Munich Security Conference. Parroting the same talking points, US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said in an interview that China would "cross a red line" if it provided military support to Russia. The media reported the same claim by different people without providing evidence.

The story is nothing new, as early as in March 2022, weeks after the conflict broke out, US officials, including President Joe Biden and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan did the same and claimed China would face consequences if it supplied Russia with military assistance. All the while, the US, not China, poured billions of dollars' worth of weapons into the battlefield.

These reports always started with a government leak, revealing an alarming pattern of propaganda. The day before the news broke, CNN cited an anonymous source in another story saying China would step up military aid for Russia. And in January, the news outlet quoted an anonymous source from the Biden administration suggesting that Chinese companies had been providing nonlethal support to Russia in the war. The narrative now goes that the assistance is coming from the Chinese government.

From US officials familiar with the intelligence, to intelligence disclosure, then to sources familiar with the matter, anonymity allows the media to amplify the story without providing specifics, giving plenty of room for manipulation.

The Western media also exerted an appalling double standard in the conflict. Two weeks after investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported that the US was responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, few stories related to the incident have been seen in mainstream Western media. Western journalists turn to anonymous sources accusing China of providing weapons while rejecting publicizing Hersh's story on the excuse that he uses anonymous source.

The US and Western allies have provided at least $50 billion in aid, funding and weapons to Ukraine. The millions of dollars in new defense spending from the Pentagon has helped further expand and line the pockets of the weapon-making industry.

The disturbing reporting on the conflict, and the campaigns that portray China as a perpetrator did not help to end the war. These reports instead helped to push the war along and prolong it in ways that only cost lives in Europe and sent money to the bank accounts of US weapon makers.

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