State Department says China is promoting Russian disinformation claiming U.S. was the source of coronavirus

The State Department believes anti-United States propaganda coming from Russia, Iran, and China has converged at an accelerated rate during the coronavirus pandemic, Politico reports.

A report produced by the department's Global Engagement Center found that while the three countries have pushed similar messages about the U.S. in the past, the campaigns were fairly narrow, focusing mostly on supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and criticizing the U.S. for bailing on international agreements. In the months since the pandemic surged, the State Department says there's been a lot more cohesion. Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran are propping up conspiracy theories accusing U.S. troops of spreading the virus, claiming China's response to the initial outbreak was strong (especially compared to U.S. negligence), and suggesting all three governments are managing the crisis well while the U.S. economy flounders.

Washington doesn't believe it's a coincidence since the Chinese Communist Party, normally stringent in their internet censorship, is allowing Russian disinformation to spread throughout the country. Lea Gabrielle, the head of the GEC, said Beijing "went from letting Russian disinformation claiming the U.S. was the source of the virus proliferate in Chinese social media, to raising questions on state media about the origin's source, to promoting disinformation that the U.S. was the source of the virus.” Read more at Politico.

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