A few days after China hadannouncedit was sending medical supplies to Italy, Chinese state media aired pictures of Italians on balconies and streets applauding the Chinese national anthem. “In Rome, with the Chinese anthem playing, some Italians chanted ‘Grazie, Cina!’ on their balconies, & their neighbors applauded along”,wroteZhao Lijian, the spokesman for China’s foreign ministry who shamefully and wronglysuggestedthat the U.S. military had brought the Covid-19 to Wuhan.
China presented itself in the role of the savior, willing to rush to the bedside of the sick patient Italy.
Now aFinancial Timesinvestigationrevealsthat those videos were manipulated as part of Beijing’s coronavirus propaganda. Hashtags #ThanksChina and #GoChina&Italy were furthergenerated by bots. A report by the Carnegie EndowmentcalledItaly “a target destination for China’s propaganda”.
Anarticlecalled, “Why the Covid-19 epidemic is so politicized” and posted on the Chinese…
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