My Take | US military sowed disinformation to undermine trust in Chinese vaccines
- Psyop in the Philippines was subsequently considered legitimate in the strategy of ‘misinformation and propaganda’ against adversary states
In a frank declaration, the document departs from the usual sanctimonious public stance of Washington that those states constantly engage in “disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda”, so they must be countered with objective facts and independent truthful news from reliable Western sources.
Instead, it says the US military needs to employ “disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda” to gain an advantage over such adversaries.
“With appropriate authorities, the Joint Force can weaponise information to manipulate an adversary’s perception of reality by influencing and disrupting social systems and technical connections that are foundational to a modern society,” it said.
“Disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda can trigger a chain of events in an adversary’s society that gradually degrades its domestic unity, undermines societal trust in its government and institutions, and diminishes its international stature.”
Reuters dropped a bombshell at the weekend, titled, “Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic”. “At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus,” it said. At least 300 accounts were identified on X, formerly Twitter, as part of the Pentagon’s disinformation campaign. General Dynamics IT was identified as the military’s primary contractor handling the campaign.
As a “psychological operation, or psyop”, it aimed at China but was carried out mostly in the Philippines and beyond. The real victims were ordinary Filipinos; the Chinese, not so much.