In the report issued on Thursday, the US State Department stated that China is manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting, and covertly purchasing foreign media outlets.
The report said that despite devoting unprecedented resources to the campaign, Beijing has suffered “major setbacks” in its targeting of democratic countries, due to resistance from local media and civil society.
The report was issued under a mandate from Congress to detail the issue of information manipulation.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the report ignored facts and was in itself false information.
The ministry added that the US State Department bodies that worked on the report are “a source of false information and a command center for a ‘cognitive war’.”
She added, “Facts have repeatedly proven that the United States is the true ’empire of lies’,” according to Reuters.
The US report comes amid controversy over Beijing’s attempts in recent years to increase the global influence of Chinese government-controlled media. Beijing seeks to combat negative images of itself that it feels are being promoted by international media.
#Beijing #responds #Washington #describes #true #empire #lies