BRUSSELS
China’s ruling Communist Party has opened a new front in its long, ambitious war to shape global public opinion: Western social media.
Liu Xiaoming, who recently stepped down as China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, is one of the party’s most successful foot soldiers on this evolving online battlefield. He joined Twitter in October 2019, as scores of Chinese diplomats surged onto Twitter and Facebook, which are both banned in China.
Since then, Liu has deftly elevated his public profile, gaining a following of more than 119,000 as he transformed himself into an exemplar of China’s new sharp-edged “wolf warrior” diplomacy, a term borrowed from the title of a top-grossing Chinese action movie.
Army of fake fans boosts China’s messaging on Twitter
By ERIKA KINETZMay 12, 2021 GMT
https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-china-europe-middle-east-government-and-politics-62b13895aa6665ae4d887dcc8d196dfc
BRUSSELS (AP) China’s ruling Communist Party has opened a new front in its long, ambitious war to shape global public opinion: Western social media.
Liu Xiaoming, who recently stepped down as China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, is one of the party’s most successful foot soldiers on this evolving online battlefield. He joined Twitter in October 2019, as scores of Chinese diplomats surged onto Twitter and Facebook, which are both banned in China.
May 11, 2021 - 3:04 AM
Gaza militants, children among 24 dead as Israel hits Hamas
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) â Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza early Tuesday, hitting the high-rise home of a Hamas field commander and two border tunnels dug by militants, as Hamas and other armed groups fired dozens of rockets toward Israel. The escalation in the conflict was sparked by weeks of tensions in contested Jerusalem.
Since sundown Monday when the cross-border attacks began, 24 Palestinians â including nine children â were killed in Gaza, most by airstrikes, Gaza health officials said. The Israeli military said 15 of the dead were militants. During the same period, Gaza militants fired more than 250 rockets toward Israel, injuring six Israeli civilians in a direct hit on an apartment building.
By ERIKA KINETZ
Associated Press
BRUSSELS (AP) â Chinaâs ruling Communist Party has opened a new front in its long, ambitious war to shape global public opinion: Western social media.
Liu Xiaoming, who recently stepped down as Chinaâs ambassador to the United Kingdom, is one of the partyâs most successful foot soldiers on this evolving online battlefield. He joined Twitter in October 2019, as scores of Chinese diplomats surged onto Twitter and Facebook, which are both banned in China.
Since then, Liu has deftly elevated his public profile, gaining a following of more than 119,000 as he transformed himself into an exemplar of Chinaâs new sharp-edged âwolf warriorâ diplomacy, a term borrowed from the title of a top-grossing Chinese action movie.
2021/05/11 12:10 FILE - In this April 20, 2021 file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech via video for the open. FILE - In this April 20, 2021 file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech via video for the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference, in Beijing. A seven-month investigation by the Associated Press and the Oxford Internet Institute, a department at Oxford University, found that the rise of Chinese diplomats on Twitter has been powered by an army of apparently fake accounts that have retweeted their posts tens of thousands of times. The move onto Western social media comes as China wages a war for influence – both at home and abroad on the internet, which President Xi Jinping has called “the main battlefield” for public opinion. (Ju Peng/Xinhua via AP, File )