China censures US information manipulation report: You are true 'empire of lies'
China is manipulating global media through censorship and data harvesting, the US state department said.
The United States is the true "empire of lies", the Chinese foreign ministry said following a US state department report that accused Beijing of putting billions of dollars annually into information manipulation efforts. China is manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting and covert purchases of foreign news outlets, the US state department said in the report.
Beijing had hit "major setbacks" when targeting democratic countries due to local media and civil society push-back, the report asserted. It was produced under a congressional mandate to detail state information manipulation.
The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement said that the report has disregarded facts and is itself false information. The agencies of the US state department "were the source of false information and the command post of 'cognitive warfare'," the Chinese ministry said.
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"Facts have repeatedly proven that the United States is the true 'empire of lies'," it added.
The US report comes amid controversy over China's attempts in recent years to increase the global footprint of its government-controlled media.
Earlier this month, the United States recognized independence of two small Pacific nations-Cook Islands and Niue two small Pacific nations, US president Joe Biden said. The US president said that the United States had a long history of cooperation with the Cook Islands, dating back to World War II.
