Thread by @marcowenjones

Thread 1/ Ok if you didn't think disinformation could get more nuts, read on how about QAnon-types are using Trump's weird pronunciation of China to shift Covid19 blame from China now to #Ukraine. It is fascinating how Q will jump through hoops to support Russian propaganda

2/ Firstly. The emerging trope. Wait for it.

Remember how Trump used to pronounce China? CHI-NA, or erm, CHY-NA (this different spelling is of course key)

If you've forgotten, here's a video of Trump just saying China

#ukraine #disinformation

3/ Well some have realised that there is a place in #Ukraine called Chyna (well not really but we will get to that). Trump was firm in his accusation that China manufactured the virus. You see where this is going... #UkraineWar

4/ Some diligent person unfamiliar with linguistics and maybe even languages in general also ran 'chyna' through Google translate. It translates from Ukrainian as 'price'. And remember Trump said China will "pay a big PRICE' *insert mind blown emoji*.

...*mic drop*

#Ukraine

5/ Funnily enough, people can't seem to agree which CHYNA they mean. I've seen at least two examples being used of anglified names of Ukrainian settlements including Troieshchyna and Shypl'chyna. Perhaps a ukrainian speaker may know what this is, is it diminutive?

6/ Anyway, it's clearly immaterial, since 1) even if there was a place called Chyna, - wait do I actually need to explain this - it's a misspelled coincidence 2) it's obviously a suffix of some sort

7/ That hasn't stopped some someone digging out the *deleted* documents from the US Embassy in Kyiv's website about US biolabs (remember, they weren't deleted, that wasn't true, but it adds to the conspiracy element). In it they note one of the 'biolabs' is near CHYNA

8/ In case you missed that reference, a Bulgarian journalist claimed US Embassy in Kyiv had deleted documents about US biolabs in Ukraine. (They didn't, they are still there). This conspiracy was retweeted by the Chinese assistant minister of foreign affairs to his 1.1m followers

9/ Anyway, many others tweeted this 'deleted documents' conspiracy. It went viral. I confronted the original journalist who spread it, she blocked me. Also it didn't stop a former fox news producer from blogging it

10/ This conspiracy is now filtering out on Twitter, reddit, and various blogs.

11/ So the TLDR is QAnon's are saying that the biolabs in Ukraine (chyna) are actually what Trump meant. The insinuation being that Ukraine started Covid19 through US-funded biolabs. So really, it was the US, and the dems, and Hunter biden. Absolutely bats. Peace #Ukraine

12/ This is a good read too on #disinformation synergies between Russia and China. I'm not implying the preceding story is all scripted, but it shows an interesting overlap between Q, Russian and Chinese narratives brookings.edu/techstream/chi… #ukraine

13/ I should also add for those don't know, Twitter essentially banned a lot of QAnon accounts from their platform back in 2020/21 - as well as harmful QAnon conspiracies cbsnews.com/news/qanon-twi…