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Alex Lo
SCMP Columnist
My Take
by Alex Lo
My Take
by Alex Lo

US and UK propagandists put their Chinese rivals to shame

  • The White House has instructed federal agencies to blame China and deflect responsibility from itself for the pandemic, while British think tank, once accused of taking money from Japan to run a campaign against Chinese foreign policy, has been pushing for reparations from Beijing
China, long-accused of running a well-oiled state propaganda machine, is getting a taste of its own medicine. The most extraordinary anti-China propaganda campaigns have been launched in the United States and Britain about Beijing’s role in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The official US campaign instructs federal agencies to blame China and deflect responsibility from the White House for the pandemic. This was spelt out in a directive contained in a leaked State Department cable.

Officials are told to focus on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up” and causing the pandemic. The talking points in the directive, “NSC Top Lines: PRC Propaganda and Disinformation on the Wuhan Virus Pandemic”, come from the National Security Council, which is at the heart of American foreign policy.

Among the talking points are: “CCP … cared more about its reputation than its own people’s suffering.

“The CCP is waging a propaganda campaign to desperately try to shift responsibility for the global pandemic to the United States. This effort is futile.”

Agencies are instructed to stress America’s “extraordinary humanitarianism”: “The United States and the American people are demonstrating once again that they are the greatest humanitarians the world has ever known.”

Meanwhile in Britain, the conservative Henry Jackson Society (HJS) has calculated how much select countries can claim damages from China over Covid-19. For the UK, it’s £351 billion (HK$3.4 trillion); the US £933.3 billion; Canada £47.9 billion; and Australia £29.9 billion.

China’s alleged breaches relate to the International Health Regulations (IHR) under the World Health Organisation. A slight problem: many signatories ignored IHR in one way or another during the pandemic. Are they also liable?

And what of sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine that came from the old British idea that “the king can do no wrong”?

But what is HJS and who runs it? According to an investigation by the The Times in 2017, the society was “paid about £10,000 a month by Japan to wage a propaganda campaign against China”.

“[The] registered charity,” reported The Times, “has encouraged politicians including the former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind and journalists to voice opposition to Chinese foreign policy.

“The HJS deal with the Japanese embassy in London was reached in response to growing cooperation between Britain and China … [The society] is run by Alan Mendoza, an unsuccessful Tory candidate at the 2015 general election[.]”

Anglo-American propagandists are putting their Chinese rivals to shame.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Chinese propagandists shamed by rivals
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