Foreign
Russia-Ukraine War: In Chinese Media, The US is The Villain
In tightly-controlled media space, conflict is an opportunity for Beijing to advance its ‘information proxy war’.
Hong Kong, China – China may portray itself as a neutral party in the war in Ukraine, but the message it communicates to its audience at home tells a different story.
State news agency Xinhua calls the war “a special military operation” and “the Russia-Ukraine crisis” but never refers to it as an invasion. CCTV, the state broadcaster, mentioned civilian casualties for the first time only three weeks after Russia invaded. More recently, state outlets doubled down on the Russian conspiracy theory claiming the US is funding the development of biological weapons in Ukraine, including migratory birds that could spread avian viruses in Russia.
How the war has been framed in Chinese state media is a reflection of where the government stands.
China has not condemned Russia over the invasion of a sovereign nation with which Beijing has strong economic ties, instead talking of “legitimate security concerns” that need to be discussed by “all parties”. And while there has been outrage in the West over the discovery in recent days of civilians allegedly killed by Russian troops in Bucha, coverage in Chinese state media has been brief, despite a recent subtle shift of tone to acknowledge the human toll.
Since the start of hostilities more than a month ago, one theme has remained consistent: the United States is the villain.
China’s relations with Russia have come under even closer scrutiny since the two countries declared a “no limits” partnership in early February.
“We should understand information as part of that,” said David Bandurski, co-director of the China Media Project, who noted that there is a long history of cooperation between Chinese state outlets and Russian agencies such as Sputnik and Russia Today.
As the conflict has continued, Chinese state media have lent their platforms to amplify Russian propaganda. State outlets cite Kremlin officials and Russian state media as their news sources, and receive regular state directives that guide their reports, according to China Digital Times, a US-based bilingual news website.
US portrayed as instigator
Similarly, the few Chinese journalists reporting from the ground have tended to parrot Russia’s favoured news lines.
As one of the few foreign journalists embedded with the Russian army, Lu Yuguang, the Moscow correspondent of the state-affiliated broadcaster Phoenix News, interviewed Russian soldiers and the separatist leader Denis Pushilin. Lu also reported from the besieged city of Mariupol, where he was injured by shelling.
Lu probably leveraged his personal connections to gain exclusive access, given his long history with the Russian military, according to Rose Luqiu, a former executive news editor at the outlet and now an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. “I would not describe him as a professional journalist,” she added.
A former navy officer in the People’s Liberation Army, Lu once revealed on a Chinese talk show that a Russian soldier saved his life when he was covering the Second Chechen War. He subsequently married the soldier’s widow, although the union ended in divorce. “Russian blood runs in my body,” said Lu in the show in 2019. His unquestioning approach, however, has made him a convenient propaganda tool.
Another overarching theme of Chinese state media coverage is the depiction of the US as the instigator of the conflict, which is part of a broader narrative peddled by Chinese diplomats and the government propaganda machine, according to analysts.
“This is one of the most consistent frames we have seen throughout. And the Chinese central leadership have really shown that they’re dedicated to the disinformation campaign,” said Bandurski. “It’s a proxy information war that China is waging here. In the long term, it’s about undermining the credibility of the US and the US-led international system.”
https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1501188439529644034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1501188439529644034%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2022%2F4%2F6%2Fchina-media-coverage-ukraine-war
Wu Min Hsuan, an expert in Chinese government disinformation, agrees.
“They are using this crisis as the perfect opportunity to reinforce their longstanding narrative inside China, attacking the US and NATO,” said the co-founder of the Taiwan-based Doublethink Lab.
State tabloid Global Times, for example, has created the hashtag #UkraineCrisisInstigator to describe the US and NATO, and accused Washington of being the real aggressor working behind the scenes.
The skewed coverage has contributed to a domestic public discourse that is largely pro-Russian. “A common view is that while the war is bad, we must support Russia in this battle to defend China’s interests. Because without Russia to hold up the West, China will be the next target,” Hu Qingxin, a media veteran now based in Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera.
Such a view has not been formed in a day but instilled over time, she stressed.
“State media might have fed the information, but the public sentiment has always been there. People worship Putin, because he is aligned with Xi Jinping. They share the same strongman image and governance style,” said Hu, who admitted she was shocked by some of the radical comments she saw online, particularly those that cheered on the war and offered to take in Ukrainian women.
In contrast, many Chinese netizens have mocked Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his background in acting and for allegedly lacking political wisdom. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship mouthpiece, has not once mentioned him despite his nightly addresses to the Ukrainian people and regular speeches to Western parliaments, while some state-affiliated outlets have shared rumours that he had fled Kyiv for his safety.
Where state media have cited Zelenskyy, it is when he has criticised the West.
“They are telling their own people the Western media and government and organisations are not trustworthy. Those who trust them would have the same fate as Ukraine,” Wu of Doublethink Lab added.
Fact-checking challenge
China has one of the world’s most restrictive media environments and is dominated by state-backed outlets.
Its internet and social media platforms are also monitored by a vast censorship apparatus that removes any information deemed sensitive, and the use of a VPN to scale the Great Firewall without a licence is illegal. While this gives the Chinese government significant control over the information its residents can access and consume, it does not imply its population always falls into line.
Wei Xing, a seasoned journalist who founded China Fact Check in the belief that people need access to accurate international reporting to form a rational and open-minded view of the world, says there has been unprecedented interest in their work since the conflict began.
It shows that among the Chinese public, there is a growing awareness of disinformation and the need to verify what they see and read on the internet, said Wei.
But their work has limitations.
For one, given the group is based in China, it has to abide by the rules that govern the dissemination of information. “If the fact-checking result goes against the government’s stance, you would cross the red line. We also have to be careful when it comes to Putin and not vilify him in any way,” said Wei. “It is regrettable, but we have been self-censoring,” he admitted.
Meanwhile, disinformation campaigns are also becoming more sophisticated. Different parties are promoting their versions of events under the name of fact-checking, even though few meet the standards of proper verification, Wei noted.
“We are working in unfavourable conditions, but with every myth you debunk, there is more truth in this world,” said Wei. “The more people participate in this project, the more people you could influence.”
Similarly, Bandurski stressed the importance of acknowledging the work of a handful of professional publications, such as Caixin, a privately-funded business publication, which are pushing in directions state media will not go and challenging the party line in their attempt to report on the conflict more accurately.
But as alternative sources of information have dwindled in recent years, the reach of state outlets has expanded, aided by social media platforms and algorithms that amplify their reports.
In the past, “an attack on the US’s false freedom of speech might be in the editorial of the People’s Daily, but few people would read it. It’s just a noise from the leadership,” said Bandurski. “Now it’s not. It’s viral content. It’s fundamentally different.”
“The more concerning question,” he added, “is what the long term impact is on relations between China and many other countries, as this kind of foreign affairs coverage has become so prevalent and is consumed on a daily basis.”
Dozens of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes in central and south Gaza as Red Sea tensions rise.
Here’s how things stand on Monday, January 15, 2024:
Latest updates and human impact
- Israeli attacks continue unabated overnight killing and wounding dozens of civilians in central and southern Gaza. At least 22 people were killed and a large number injured as a result of Israeli forces targeting al-Thalatheni Street in the central Gaza Strip.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an antiship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, which was shot down by a US fighter jet, announced US Central Command (CENTCOM) on X.
- This was the first US-acknowledged Houthi attack since the US strikes on Yemen on Friday.
- Hamas released a 37-second video showing three Israeli captives held in Gaza on Sunday, saying they would reveal the fate of the captives on Monday and urging the Israeli government to stop the offensive.
- The Israeli military says it has shifted to a new phase of the war focused on the southern end of Gaza, where almost 2 million internally displaced Palestinians are running out of safe spaces to shelter.
- The Gaza Ministry of Health has said almost 24,000 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive. More than 60,000 people have been wounded in 100 days of war.
Diplomacy
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country will pursue its war against Hamas until victory and will not be stopped by anyone, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
- The White House said on Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
- Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said in a statement on Sunday that one of the biggest obstacles to the timely delivery of sufficient aid to Gaza was Israeli inspection of the aid. The statement came after Israel blamed Cairo for the delay in aid delivery to Gaza during its defence at the ICJ.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted on X on Monday, calling for the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza on the 100th day since they were taken by Hamas. He did not mention the Palestinian casualties.
- Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who described herself as a “friend of Israel” to the press, will travel to Jordan, Israel, the occupied Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates this week, her office said on Monday.
West Bank raids and violence
- Israeli forces arrested 25 students staging a sit-in in protest against high tuition fees at An-Najah University in Nablus. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported that the protesting students received a text message from Israeli forces telling them to “surrender now”.
- Israeli forces have reportedly raided the family home of Nael al-Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, in the village of Kobar, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
- The Israeli army said on Friday that it killed three Palestinian men who infiltrated a West Bank settlement and fired upon soldiers.
- The Israeli military killed two Palestinians after accusing them of ramming their car through a checkpoint near Hebron.
- Local sources reported that Israeli forces bulldozed two Palestinian-owned houses during a Sunday midnight raid in the city of Qalqilya, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
- Armed Israeli settlers broke into the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and attacked Palestinian residents’ houses and properties after midnight on Sunday, Wafa reported.
- “Violent raids and arrests have become part of the fabric of daily life in the occupied West Bank,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said. At least 347 Palestinians have been killed and thousands have been arrested since October 7.
Flames and smoke billow during Israeli attacks against Gaza on October 9, 2023
Human Rights Watch terms Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s call for a ‘complete siege’ on Gaza a ‘war crime’.
The Hamas movement has threatened to kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel bombs a Palestinian home without warning as Israel mobilised some 300,000 reservists and imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, denying the enclave’s millions of residents access to food, water and fuel.
The warning from Hamas came on Monday as the death toll from the armed group’s surprise weekend attack climbed to 900 in Israel and revenge attacks by Israeli forces on the besieged Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people and left some 3,700 others wounded.
Residential apartment blocks, hospitals, schools and a mosque have been among the sites attacked by Israeli fighter jets, artillery and drones, according to media reports and witnesses.
Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida issued the threat to kill Israelis from the dozens held captive by the armed group. He said an Israeli hostage would be killed for every Israeli bombing of a civilian house without warning.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said more than 100 people were taken captive by Hamas during the deadly cross-border incursion over the weekend.
As Israeli forces conducted intense retaliatory attacks on Gaza on Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a total blockade of the densely populated and besieged enclave, which is home to 2.3 million people.
Gallant said Israel would impose a “complete siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” by the siege announcement and warned that Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation will now “only deteriorate exponentially”.
Guterres also said some 137,000 people were taking shelter with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at schools across Gaza.
UNRWA said on Tuesday that almost 190,000 people have been displaced in Gaza amid the Israeli attacks and the figure is expected to grow further as the violence intensifies.
Nearly half a million people have also not received food rations this week in Gaza as UN food distribution centres have been forced to remain closed amid the Israeli onslaught, UNRWA said.
Human Rights Watch said Israel’s total blockade on the necessities of life for everyday people in Gaza was a war crime.
“Defense Minister Gallant’s statements are abhorrent,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“Depriving the population in an occupied territory of food and electricity is collective punishment, which is a war crime, as is using starvation as a weapon of war. The International Criminal Court should take note of this call to commit a war crime,” he said.
Abhorrent. This is a call to commit a war crime by @yoavgallant. The @IntlCrimCourt should take note.
Quote by @OmarSShakir ⤵️ https://t.co/kKVo6YtpI1 pic.twitter.com/neHQMwnXVn
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 9, 2023
Shakir also condemned the threat by Hamas to kill hostages, warning that such action was also a war crime.
“All hostages should be safely released to their families,” he said.
Grotesque. These threatened acts would amount to flagrant war crimes by Hamas’ armed wing. The @IntlCrimCourt will be watching.
Quote from @OmarSShakir ⤵️ https://t.co/FuNtvHe0YG pic.twitter.com/6cnHODLWyZ
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 9, 2023
On the diplomatic front, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Hamas and Israel to immediately end violence and protect civilians, the Egyptian presidency said.
Erdogan urged Israel against “indiscriminately” attacking civilians and delivered measured criticism of Hamas, urging both sides to respect the “ethics” of war.
The United Kingdom, French, German, Italian and US governments issued a joint statement on Monday recognising the “legitimate aspirations” of the Palestinian people and supporting equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
But the prospect that fighting could spread also alarmed the region and the world.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in response to at least three of its members being killed in Israeli shelling of Lebanon.
Israel said one of its deputy commanders was also killed in an earlier cross-border raid from Lebanon.
US President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the US, September 20, 2023
Social media users, including journalists and observers, are calling out what they call a ‘double standard’.
After Saturday’s surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to the social media platform X to offer “condolences go out to everyone who lost relatives or close ones in the terrorist attack”.
He also stated, “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable.”
Many world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, shared similar sentiments.
The world is seeing appalling images.
Thousands of rockets raining down on Israeli cities. Hamas terrorists killing not only Israeli soldiers, but civilians on the streets and in their homes.
It’s unconscionable. Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 7, 2023
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated, “Israel has the right to defend itself – today and in the days to come. The European Union stands with Israel.”
Accusations of Western ‘double standards’
Some social media users have criticised these statements, saying they highlight a double standard.
The world is seeing appalling images.
Thousands of rockets raining down on Israeli cities. Hamas terrorists killing not only Israeli soldiers, but civilians on the streets and in their homes.
It’s unconscionable. Israel has a right to defend itself – full stop.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 7, 2023
Ukraine’s right to defend itself is praised by most international leaders while Russia’s invasion is condemned, but commentators said the same cannot be said about Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Aaron Bastani, a leftist British journalist, said on X that there’s a “clear double standard in endorsing terrorism against civilian targets in Ukraine … and condemning it by Palestinians”.
Many users said Western diplomats and media support the Ukrainians who defend their land, but label the Palestinians fighting against Israel as “terrorists”.
https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/1710787817415082349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710787817415082349%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
An illustration of a woman’s face, in which one eye is closed beside a Palestinian flag, and one eye open beside a Ukrainian flag, has been regularly shared as a symbol of the West’s alleged double standards in how the two conflicts are viewed.
https://twitter.com/OnlinePalEng/status/1710994682883273172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710994682883273172%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
Clips also emerged on social media from a CNN interview with Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, in which he posed the rhetorical question, “Why does the United States support Ukraine in fighting occupation – while here they support the occupier, who continues to occupy us?”
The hypocrisy and double standards of western governments and media platforms dealing with situations in Ukraine-Russia and Palestine-Israel blow the mind. Absolute disgrace.
— Said Yacoubi (@AlyacoubiSaid) October 8, 2023
It is not the first time Western nations have been accused of double standards in their stance on the Ukraine war.
Earlier in the year, Amnesty International published a report highlighting the West’s “double standards” on global human rights.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, told Al Jazeera at the time that the occupation of Palestinian territory was a “particularly important one”.
“Without making any comparison between Russia’s aggression and Israel … it is clear the Palestinian people are under a regime of oppression – a regime of occupation and a regime of apartheid,” Callamard told Al Jazeera.
Over the last three days, X users recirculated earlier statements calling out what they called Western hypocrisy, sharing video by the Irish lawmaker Richard Boyd Barrett from March 2022 in which he berated the Irish government’s double standards regarding Ukraine and Palestine:
“You’re happy to use the most strong and robust language to describe the crimes against humanity of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, but you will not use the same strength of language when it comes to describing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.”
Barrett on Sunday again called out what he described as “shocking double standards of Western leaders supporting Ukraine resistance but condemning Palestinian[s].”
Meanwhile, others warned against comparing conflicts.
https://twitter.com/denfordauthor/status/1710993737738768607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1710993737738768607%7Ctwgr%5E6acf829869e993177f32aa38aa48c02f38cb7f61%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2023%2F10%2F9%2Fwestern-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine
And some cautioned that Hamas and the Palestinians should not be seen as one and the same.
Just to clarify:
Palestine did not mount an attack on Israel. An Iranian proxy militia did. Palestinians are by and large huddled in their homes praying that an Israeli airstrike won't kill them or theirs. Hamas is the culprit here. This isn't a decentralized grassroots thing.
— Romeo Kokriatski (@VagrantJourno) October 9, 2023
Ukrainian footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, who plays for Arsenal, posted on Instagram, stating he “stands with Israel”.
Zinchenko has been a vocal supporter of his home country in its ongoing defence against Russia, and he participated in a Game4Ukraine charity match in London earlier this year to raise money for Ukraine.
After online backlash, with some questioning an alleged double standard in his support of Israel, the footballer removed the post and switched his social media account to private.
Several people claimed that Zinchenko’s football club, in not responding to his comments, was guilty of hypocrisy after they had distanced themselves from former player Mesut Ozil’s comments in 2019 over alleged human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China.
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