The U.S. State Department’s report, released on Thursday, claimed that China was manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting, and covert acquisitions of foreign news outlets.
Despite significant resources dedicated to this campaign, the report noted that Beijing had encountered “major setbacks” when targeting democratic countries due to resistance from local media and civil society.
In response, the Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement asserting that the report had disregarded facts and itself constituted false information.
The Chinese ministry further criticized the agencies within the U.S. State Department responsible for producing the report, accusing them of being the source of false information and the command centre for ‘cognitive warfare.’
The statement concluded by stating, “Facts have repeatedly proven that the United States is the true ’empire of lies.'”
The U.S. report comes amid ongoing controversy surrounding China’s efforts to expand the global reach of its government-controlled media in response to what it perceives as negative portrayals of China in international media.