international sharp comments | insight into the us's plan to increase its cognitive war against china by $1.6 billion
2024-09-21
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the u.s. house of representatives recently passed a bill to allocate $1.6 billion, or $325 million per year, from fiscal years 2023 to 2027, to counter the so-called "malicious influence of china." this latest move to spend money to manipulate public opinion and smear china has confirmed that the u.s. is the real disseminator of false information, which has had a negative impact on international relations and the international public opinion ecosystem.
looking through the bill, we find that in addition to the clichés that attack the chinese system, there are also some terms commonly used by the united states, including the so-called endangerment of the united states' "national security and economic security" and "undermining the international order". it also mentions a key target for smearing, which is the "belt and road" initiative. to this end, the bill encourages individuals and entities funded by the united states to fabricate negative news related to it. marcus stanley, a scholar at the quincy institute of national affairs in the united states, commented that $1.6 billion is a huge expense, "equivalent to twice the annual operating expenditure of cnn in the united states." similarly, $1.6 billion is also twice the annual budget of the united states global media agency. analysts pointed out that this shows the us's hegemony anxiety and the eagerness of some people to gain political capital to smear china.
two notorious institutions
although the bill did not directly specify which media outlets would be supported or how the $1.6 billion would be spent, two familiar names appeared in it - the global engagement center (gec) and the united states agency for international development.
let's look at gec first. this agency is affiliated with the us state department and is seen as the coordination center for the us to launch cognitive warfare against china, russia and other countries. it claims to be responsible for the task of "countering false information", but in fact it is the manufacturing center of false information. the united states agency for international development is the main agency for the united states to carry out "democratic penetration" abroad. in the budget request for fiscal year 2025 announced by us president biden, it and the us state department jointly applied for us$400 million to counter "china's global influence."
analysts believe that if the $1.6 billion bill is eventually signed into law, the huge amount of money will most likely go to these two agencies. as for how the money is spent, we can get a rough idea of how the two agencies use it to wage a war of public opinion and cognitive warfare.
three familiar routines
the practice of the united states spending money to manipulate public opinion is not new. from confronting the soviet union during the cold war, to inciting the "arab spring" at the beginning of this century, to suppressing and smearing china today, the main means of the united states are nothing more than the following:
first, spend money to buy a network of trolls. in 2020, gabriel, then head of the gec, publicly admitted in his testimony to congress that the us government, in conjunction with western internet companies and non-governmental organizations, has stepped up the promotion of "news literacy projects" around the world to support local pro-western media. to put it bluntly, it is to spend money to train overseas media and journalists to write smear articles and spread rumors.
for example, in may 2022, a so-called independent media in zimbabwe was exposed for openly writing fake news to discredit the "belt and road" project, and each article was paid $1,000 by the us embassy. in recent reports on the situation in the south china sea, some so-called independent media in the philippines, such as rappler and vera files, often reprint reports from us media such as cnn. according to open source information, the sponsors of these philippine media have close ties with gec. relevant websites also show that one of the projects supported by gec is to study china's activities in the philippines.
second, throw money at institutions. remember the "xinjiang cotton" incident? in 2020, the better cotton initiative (bci) of switzerland issued a statement saying that it had suspended the xinjiang cotton project due to pressure. where did this pressure come from? the bci official website clearly states that the united states agency for international development is one of its funding partners. in november 2023, the "aiddata" project (aiddata) of the college of william and mary in the united states released a report that discredited the "belt and road" initiative, and the sponsor behind aiddata was also the united states agency for international development.
third, increase penetration and investment in new media. in recent years, american social media has frequently been exposed to government manipulation. the "facebook data gate" in 2021 and the "twitter file gate" in 2022 revealed that multiple official agencies in the united states secretly pressured social media platforms to cooperate with government actions. elon musk once publicly accused gec of being the culprit of the us government's interference in social media. during the covid-19 pandemic, tens of thousands of twitter and facebook accounts in china were closed, and gec was behind it.
in august 2022, a report released by stanford university and other institutions pointed out that the united states created hundreds of fake accounts through a "covert influence operation" to slander china and other countries on multiple social platforms. the united states has used every possible means in the new media cognitive warfare, such as stealing, tampering or using artificial intelligence to generate fake avatars, posting in groups under the false identities of "independent media" and "local residents", and hyping up rumors by labeling and forwarding petitions.
multiple ulterior motives
analysts believe that the above three routines reflect the characteristics of the "whole-government" coordination and "global" layout of the us cognitive war against china. the allocation of funds to upgrade the cognitive war against china is just one of the bad actions of the us house of representatives in recent times. after resuming this month, the house of representatives specially arranged a week to intensively review a number of china-related bills, covering export controls, biosafety, hong kong, taiwan issues, etc. li haidong, a professor at the china foreign affairs university, believes that it is rare for the us house of representatives to discuss more than 20 china-related bills in one week, which reveals the toughness and anxiety of the us policy toward china, and there are multiple intentions behind it.
the most pressing issue is that politicians are eager to take credit. the u.s. house of representatives is elected every two years, and the election will be held in more than a month. due to the intensification of party polarization, it is difficult for a large number of bills proposed by congressmen during their term to pass. in the distorted atmosphere of political correctness of "showing strength to china", they believe that if they want to achieve something, they must talk about china. take this so-called bill to counter "china's malicious influence" as an example. the proposer, republican congressman andy barr, is a member of the "special committee on u.s.-china strategic competition". in the view of diao daming, a professor at renmin university of china, this committee, which has been established for more than a year, is eager to hand in a "final report card" to gain political capital.
in addition, as the us election approaches, the us congress also wants to "steal the limelight" from the white house, set the tone for future china policy, and compete for the dominance of china policy. more importantly, at present, the us social contradictions are prominent and the public dissatisfaction is rising. both parties have made china a target, trying to divert domestic contradictions by exaggerating the "china threat" and showing toughness against china in order to win votes.
it can be seen that in order to gain political capital, american politicians have concocted weapons to "stigmatize" and "demonize" china one after another, provoking american people's hostility towards china and undermining mutually beneficial cooperation between china and the united states. however, smearing and suppression cannot fundamentally solve the problems of the united states, nor can it stop china's development. instead, it will undermine sino-us relations, damage the interests of the american nation and people, and threaten global peace and stability. american politicians should ask themselves: is this $1.6 billion worth spending?
