Conspiracy theories fracture Chinese dissident community abroad, find footing among those who support Donald Trump

Name: Trump bids farewell after what he calls ‘an incredible four years’
Uploaded: 2021-02-18T21:36:25.000Z
Duration: 1 min 30 s
Description: Trump bids farewell after what he calls ‘an incredible four years’

Misinformation amplified on Chinese language social media, in chat groups and video blogs has found a footing among the pro-Trump Chinese community abroad

Prominent members have rallied behind Trump’s failed efforts to overturn his electoral defeat

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Conspiracy theories have found a footing among Trump supporters within the Chinese dissident community abroad. Photo: Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

Owen Churchillin United States

Published: 5:36am, 19 Feb 2021Updated: 10:53am, 19 Feb 2021

The tempestuous weeks following Joe Biden’s election as US president gave rise to numerous fact-free conspiracy theories. Among them: a claim the CIA director was captured by US special forces and flown to Guantanamo Bay to face charges relating to election interference; weeks later, an accusation that left-wing activists conspired with police officers to orchestrate the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Of the many corners of Donald Trump’s support base where this tsunami of misinformation has found a willing audience, one contingent has stood out: pro-democracy Chinese dissidents living overseas.

Amplified on Chinese language social media, in chat groups and video blogs, such claims have found a footing in a community ostensibly unified by a reverence for democratic norms, but which has seen numerous prominent members rally behind Trump’s failed efforts to overturn his electoral defeat.

Other members of the dissident community are growing increasingly worried that misinformation and disinformation – and their peers’ embrace of it – is fracturing the group in ways that will be near impossible to undo.

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Trump bids farewell after what he calls ‘an incredible four years’

“The pro-democracy movement now has basically got to a point where it cannot recover,” said Washington-based activist Yang Jianli, who believes that his peers’ endorsement of Trump’s unproven claims of election fraud is further marginalising a community that has rarely taken centre stage in US politics.

Prominent members of the dissident community who have thrown their weight behind Trump’s claims of a stolen election include Chen Guangcheng, the legal activist who in 2012 escaped house arrest in China and subsequently left the country with the help of US diplomats.