U.S. warns of Chinese disinformation campaign. What does it look like?

In a first-of-its-kind report, the U.S. State Department last week laid out Beijing’s tactics and techniques for molding public opinion.

For much of the world, China’s Xinjiang region is notorious, a place where ethnic Uyghurs face forced labor and arbitrary detention. But a group of visiting foreign journalists was left with a decidedly different impression.

On a tour in late September sponsored by Beijing, the 22 journalists from 17 countries visited bazaars and chatted with residents over dates and watermelon slices. They later told state media they were impressed with the bustling economy, described the region as “full of cultural, religious and ethnic diversity,” and denounced what they said were lies by Western media.

The trip is an example of what Washington sees as Beijing’s growing efforts to reshape the global narrative on China. It’s spending billions of dollars annually to do so.

In a first-of-its-kind report, the State Department last week laid out Beijing’s tactics and techniques for molding public opinion, such as buying content, creating fake personas to spread its message and using repression to quash unfavorable accounts.

The Global Engagement Center, a State Department agency that’s tasked with combating foreign propaganda and disinformation and that released the 58-page report, warned that Beijing’s information campaign could eventually sway how decisions are made around the world and undermine U.S. interests.

“Unchecked, the (Chinese government’s) information manipulation could in many parts of the world diminish freedom to express views critical of Beijing,” said Jamie Rubin, who heads the center. He said Beijing’s efforts could “transform the global information landscape and damage the security and stability of the United States, its friends, and partners.”

“We don’t want to see an Orwellian mix of fact and fiction in our world,” he said. “That will destroy the secure world of rules and rights that the United States and much of the world relies upon.”

China over the weekend slammed the report, calling it “in itself disinformation as it misrepresents facts and truth.”