CCP: USG is the Primary Spreader of Disinformation

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on June 8, 2022

CCTV: According to reports, the Disinformation Governance Board under the US Department of Homeland Security was halted just 21 days after it was set up after raising serious questions. The first head of the office also had to resign. Do you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: The US government itself is the primary spreader of disinformation.

...US politicians might get away with irresponsible statements, but it is the ordinary people who could pay the ultimate price for disinformation. The US used a vial of white powder as so-called evidence of possession of weapons of mass destruction and waged war on Iraq, which killed about 200,000 to 250,000 Iraqi civilians. Citing a staged video by the “White Helmet” and the false intelligence it provided as “evidence”, the US launched the so-called “most precise air campaign in history” against Syria, claiming more than 1,600 innocent civilian lives in a single strike.

You may still remember that the US downplayed the threat and speed of coronavirus’ transmission at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and kept spreading disinformation about the origins of the virus. Disinformation about COVID-19 was rated by a certain US website as “2020 Lie of the Year”. As a result, more than one million innocent American lives have been lost to the virus, making the US the country with the highest COVID-19 death toll as well as the most confirmed cases.

The more lies the US government tells, the greater the reputational damage and its credibility deficit. According to the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, only about 39 percent of American respondents said they trusted their country’s government, which is near the lowest level ever recorded. The US needs to stop fabricating and disseminating false information, and stop taking pride in being “an empire of lies”.