Photo: EPA/UPG
Close ties between the Russian and Chinese state media, along with tight state control of information in China, have allowed Russia to stimulate pro-Russian views in China effectively.
The Guardian reported this with reference to the Taiwanese cyber monitoring group Doublethink Labs.
The group's report said Chinese media broadcast Russian disinformation about Ukraine and connected Ukrainians to protests in Hong Kong to encourage solidarity between Russians and Chinese against "foreign forces interfering in internal affairs."
The Doublethink Labs report indicates that despite the Chinese government's official neutrality, content-sharing agreements between Russia's and China's state media, Chinese censorship decisions, and government coverage directives regarding information about the war helped create massive support for Russian aggression.
The report says that before the invasion, Russia's need to "denazify Ukraine" was barely discussed until war actions began. But the speed with which disinformation spread has shown "how easily cooperation between China and Russian state media can sow disinformation referring to each other as sources and broadening each other's perspectives."
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the Chinese media spread false stories, including Russia's statements that the Ukrainian army had surrendered and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had fled. The publications also promoted false polls stating that Ukrainians did not support NATO membership.
Chinese censorship has also blocked Ukraine-related content, including posts of a Chinese citizen who wrote blogs from Odesa. At the same time, the country's state media published false information about US-funded biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine.
On 1 April 2022, EU leaders will talk to China about the inadmissibility of Russia's support.
Earlier, during a two-hour conversation, US President Joe Biden warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping about the consequences for Beijing of providing financial or military assistance to Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.
Russian President Volodymyr Putin and China President Xi Jinping during the meeting in Beijing, 4 February, 2022