Clandestine Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, inciting domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the November election. according to researchers and government officials.
The accounts indicate a potential tactical shift in how Beijing aims to influence American politics, with a greater willingness to target specific candidates and parties, including Mr. Biden.
In an echo of Russia’s influence campaign before the 2016 election, China appears to be trying to use partisan divisions to undermine the policies of the Biden administration, despite recent efforts by the two countries to lower the temperature in their relationships.
Some of the Chinese accounts pretend to be die-hard Trump fans, including one on X who claims to be “a father, husband and son” who is “MAGA in every way!!” Accounts mock Mr.’s age. Biden and shared fake photos of him in a prison jumpsuit, or claimed that Mr. Biden is a Satanist pedophile while promoting the slogan “Make America Great Again” by Mr. Trump.
“I’ve never seen anything along those lines,” said Elise Thomas, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit research organization that opened a small group of fake accounts posing as Trump supporters. .
Linked by Ms. Thomas and other researchers found new activity in a long-standing network of accounts connected to the Chinese government known as Spamouflage. Some of the accounts they detailed had previously posted pro-Beijing content in Mandarin — which has resurfaced in recent months under the guise of real Americans writing in English.
In a separate project, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a research organization in Washington, met 170 fake Facebook pages and accounts that also pushed anti-American messages, including pointed attacks on Mr. Biden.
The effort has been more successful in attracting the attention of actual users and has been more difficult for researchers to identify than previous Chinese efforts to influence public opinion in the United States. Although researchers say the overall political slant of the campaign remains unclear, it raises the possibility that the Chinese government is counting on a second Trump presidency, despite his sometimes hostile statements against the country. , may be better than Biden’s second term.
China’s activity has already raised alarms within the American government.
In February, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence China is reportedly expanding its influence campaigns to “sow doubts about US leadership, undermine democracy and expand Beijing’s influence.” The report expressed concern that Beijing could use more sophisticated methods to try to influence the American election “to sideline China’s critics.”
Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in a statement that the presidential election is “the domestic affair of the United States” and that “China is committed to the principle of non-interference.”
“The claims about China influencing the US presidential election are completely fabricated,” he added.
Ms. Thomas, who has studied China’s information operations for years, said the new effort suggested a more subtle and sophisticated approach than previous campaigns. It’s the first time, he said, that he’s come across Chinese accounts that pose persuasively as American Trump supporters while managing to attract genuine engagement.
“The worry is always, what if one day they wake up and are effective?” he says. “Potentially, this could be the beginning of their awakening and effectiveness.”
Online disinformation experts look forward to the months leading up to the November election with growing anxiety.
Intelligence assessments show Russia is using increasingly subtle influence tactics on the United States to spread its case for isolationism as its war against Ukraine continues. Mock news sites target Americans with Russian propaganda.
Efforts to defeat false narratives and conspiracy theories — already a difficult task — must now also contend with waning moderation efforts on social media platforms, political pushback, rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology and extensive information fatigue.
Until now, China’s efforts to promote its ideology in the West have struggled to gain traction, first pushing its official propaganda about its cultural and economic superiority and later beginning to disparage democracy and -stirred up anti-American sentiment.
In the 2022 midterm elections, cybersecurity firm Mandiant reported that Dragonbridge, an influence campaign linked to China, tried to dissuade Americans from voting while highlighting US political polarization. That campaign, which experimented with fake American personas posting content in the first person, was poorly executed and largely overlooked online, researchers said.
Recent China-connected campaigns have sought to exploit the divisions already evident in American politics, joining the divisive debate on issues such as gay rights, immigration and crime primarily from a right-wing perspective.
In February, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a Chinese-linked account on X calling itself a Western name along with a “MAGA 2024” reference shared a video from RT, the Kremlin-controlled Russian television network, to claim that Mr. Biden and the Central Intelligence Agency sent a neo-Nazi gangster to fight in Ukraine. (That narrative is debunked of the investigative group Bellingcat.)
The next day the post received a huge boost when Alex Jones, the podcaster known for spreading false claims and conspiracy theories, shared it on the platform with his 2.2 million followers.
The account with the reference “MAGA 2024” took steps to appear authentic, describing itself as run by a 43-year-old Trump supporter in Los Angeles. But it used a profile picture lifted from a Danish man’s travel blog, the institute’s report on the accounts said. Although the account was opened 14 years ago, the first publicly visible post was in April. In that post, the account tried, without evidence, to link Mr. Biden to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and registered sex offender.
At least four other similar accounts were also operating, Ms. Thomas, they are all related to China. An account paid for a subscription to X, which offers perks like better promotions and a blue check mark that, before Elon Musk bought the platform, was a sign of verification awarded to users whose identities have been verified. Like other accounts, it shared pro-Trump and anti-Biden claims, including the QAnon conspiracy theory and baseless accusations of election fraud.
The posts included advice to “be strong ourselves, don’t destroy China and create rumours,” awkward phrases like “how dare?” instead of “how dare you?” and signs that the user’s web browser is set to Mandarin.
One of the accounts apparently slipped in May when it responded to another post in Mandarin; another posted primarily in Mandarin until last spring, when it went quiet for a while before resurfacing with all-English content. The accounts denounced efforts by American lawmakers to ban the popular TikTok app, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, as a form of “true authoritarianism” organized by Israel and as a tool for to Mr. Biden to undermine China.
The accounts are sometimes exaggerated or repeat content from the Chinese-influenced Spamouflage campaign, which was first identified in 2019 and linked to a branch of the Ministry of Public Security. It once posted content almost exclusively in Chinese to attack critics and protesters of the Communist Party in Hong Kong.
It has pivoted in recent years to focus on the United States, portraying the country as overwhelmed by chaos. As of 2020, it posts in English and criticizes American foreign policy, as well as domestic issues in the United States, including its response to Covid-19 and natural disasters, such as last year’s wildfires in Hawaii. year.
China, that is has denied interference in the internal affairs of other countries, now appears to be forming a network of accounts on multiple platforms to be used in November. “It is reminiscent of the Russian style of operation, but the difference is more in the intensity of this operation,” said Margot Fulde-Hardy, a former analyst at viginum, the government agency in France that fights disinformation online.
In the past, multiple Spamouflage accounts followed each other, posted carelessly in multiple languages and simultaneously blitzed social media users with the same message across multiple platforms.
Newer accounts are trickier to find because they’re trying to build an organic following and appear to be controlled by humans rather than automated bots. One of the X accounts also has linked Instagram profiles and Threads, creating the appearance of authenticity.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Threads, last year removed thousands of fake accounts linked to Spamouflage on Facebook and others on Instagram. It called a network it took down “the largest known cross-platform influence operation to date.” Hundreds of related accounts remained on other platforms, including TikTok, X, LiveJournal and Blogspot, Meta said.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has documented a new coordinated group of Chinese accounts linked to a Facebook page with 3,000 followers called War of Somethings. The report highlights China’s continued efforts despite Meta’s repeated efforts to remove Spamouflage accounts.
“What we’re seeing,” said Max Lesser, a senior analyst with the foundation, “is that the campaign is just continuing, not stopped.”
