Jessica Brandt Profile picture
Jan 24 8 tweets 5 min read
How are China's wolf warrior diplomats and state media covering the Ukraine crisis on Twitter?

✅Boosting Kremlin talking points casting the UK's recent warning as "disinformation"
✅Highlighting schisms in Europe, NATO
✅Dunking on US

Examples, just from today 👇
China's state media and diplomats are boosting Putin's attempts to discredit the British Government's warning that Russia plans to install a pro-Kremlin leader in Ukraine.
Beijing's wolf warriors are hammering the idea that the current crisis is "blowing holes" in the European project and NATO alliance and suggesting that the US is not an effective, respected leader.
Here are more examples, again just in the last 24 hours, highlighting differences among NATO allies on how to approach the crisis.
This is in line with the "divide and discredit" strategy the Kremlin has been running for weeks, which I recently described for @BrookingsFP 👇

brookings.edu/blog/order-fro…
And then, of course, Beijing is using the crisis to troll the United States, framing the State Department as ineffective and American people as bumbling.
We saw a similar approach in Beijing's coverage of the other crisis in the region: Kazakhstan.

As I've argued for @TWQgw, I don't believe China and Russia are formally coordinating, but they share certain near-term goals (denting the global prestige of the US; weakening the EU, NATO, transatlantic alliance) and therefore promote similar narratives.

cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.gwu.edu/…

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More from @jessbrandt

Oct 12, 2021
Russian state-controlled media's response to the #PandoraPapers attempts to discredit allegations against individuals linked to the Kremlin and suggests Washington had a hand in the leak.

For @BrookingsFP, I explain👇

brookings.edu/blog/order-fro…
Russian state media have been amplifying some of the project’s most troubling findings — including the US' emergence as a leading destination for sheltering dark money — while simultaneously trafficking in conspiracies about the origin of the leaks.
State-controlled media have repeatedly boosted skepticism over the absence of US officials in the docs, suggesting Western leaders might've been “screened out” from the data and that “recurring peculiarities” point to “Washington’s hand behind” the disclosures.
Read 18 tweets
Jul 20, 2021
At it again.

Over the past 8 weeks or so, Chinese government officials have peddled this conspiracy with alarming frequency.

According to recent data from @SecureDemocracy:

👉 >35 officials, state media outlets have mentioned Fort Detrick in
👉 >115 tweets in
👉 9 languages
As others have documented, there's lots of chatter across Chinese social media sites, posts to comment sections, etc., advancing these ideas.
Unclear whether its centrally orchestrated or organic, but there are several examples of Chinese officials retweeting suspicious accounts, as Bret Schafer notes here:
foreignpolicy.com/2021/07/09/chi…
Read 4 tweets
Mar 8, 2021
.@SecureDemocracy looked at more than 35K vaccine-related messages from Russian, Chinese, and Iranian diplomats, government officials, and state media outlets on Twitter, YouTube, and state-sponsored news websites get a handle on their narratives.

What did we find? THREAD
FIRST: While there were few instances of any studied country promoting verifiably false info about vaccines, reports of safety concerns related to certain Western vaccines were often sensationalized while key contextual info was omitted or downplayed.
For EX: Iran’s Fars News Agency tweeted that the Pfizer vaccine “kill[ed] six people in America,” omitting (and never correcting) that:

- 4 of the 6 ppl who died had received a placebo
- authorities determined no causal connection b/w vaccines and the deaths of the other 2
Read 23 tweets
Oct 6, 2020
My colleagues at @SecureDemocracy took a look at how Russia's state media is responding to news of President Trump's #COVID diagnosis, using data from the Hamilton 2.0 dashboard. securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/hamilton-dashb…

What did they see?
Efforts to stoke partisan division in the United States by amplifying “he deserves it” tweets and commentary.
And by promoting speculation (from Americans) that the diagnosis is a political ploy.
Read 5 tweets
Mar 19, 2020
The team at @SecureDemocracy took a look at 2,900 tweets from China's diplomatic and state media accounts over the past three days to get a sense of Beijing's messaging on #coronavirus. Here's what we found.
First, China is using the #coronavirus crisis to position itself as a provider of public goods (an implicit contrast to the United States) -- in other words, as the new partner of first resort for our allies in Europe.
Among the top tweets by engagement are posts from China's embassies in France, Italy, and Spain. All of them highlight assistance from China.
Read 12 tweets
Mar 16, 2020
Some very important points in @RidT @nytimes essay out today, which sparked a flurry of my own thinking. THREAD.
nytimes.com/2020/03/16/opi…
As he so aptly puts it: Putin's ultimate goal is not to strengthen a particular candidate or party, but to weaken the United States.
We at @SecureDemocracy have been tracking Russian overt messaging on the 2020 contest. Its all about raising doubts about the legitimacy of the process and amplifying fissures. It mentions particular candidates, but the candidates are not the point.
Read 23 tweets

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