The accts signal a potential tactical shift in how #China aims to #influence American #politics, w/more of a willingness to target specific candidates & parties, including Biden.
In an echo of #Russia’s #influence campaign, #China appears to be trying to harness #partisan#divisions to undermine the #Biden admin’s policies, despite recent efforts by the 2 countries to lower the temperature in their relations.
Some of the #Chinese accounts impersonate fervent #Trump fans, including one [still allowed] on #X that purported to be “a father, husband & son” who was “#MAGA all the way!!”
The accts mocked #Biden’s age & shared fake images of him in a prison jumpsuit, or claimed that Biden was a Satanist pedophile QAnon [#propaganda] while promoting #Trump’s #MAGA slogan.
“I’ve never seen anything along those lines at all before,” said Elise Thomas, a snr analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit research org that uncovered some of the fake accts….
@Nonilex It's interesting to me that China would prefer Trump over Biden. I would think they would want a rational, predictable actor running their chief rival, as opposed to a dilettante and madman. But perhaps what they really want is a more divided, weaker US?
@tersenurse they want a destabilized United States, also all they have to do is flatter Trump to manipulate him. He’s an easy mark. A demented narcissist who only advances his own interests as opposed to someone who puts the interests of the ~350 million people in the US before his own? Way more difficult to deal with.
…researchers linked the new activity to a long-running network of accts connected w/ #China’s govt known as #Spamouflage. Several of the accts…previously posted pro-Beijing content in Mandarin— only to recently resurface under the guise of #Americans writing in English.
In a separate proj, the Foundation for #Defense of #Democracies …ID’ed 170 fake pgs & accts on #Facebook that have also pushed anti-American msgs, incl’g pointed attacks on #Biden.
they clearly see Biden as a threat, not [#Trump]
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