China has become so infamous for cheap knockoffs that if you look up "fake" in Roget's 2022 Thesaurus, you're likely to find "Chinese" listed as a synonym. From hilarious IP violations (Badkar & Smith; Chinamike) to entire cities (Woodruff, Yiu & Valiente) to virtually every aircraft ever flown by the People's Imitation Army (Flying Mag Staff), the country has a well-earned reputation as the world's epicenter of all things fake. And it is not just about copycatting either. Forged credentials and ID's are so common in China that not even the "China can do no wrong" narrative by the CCP's Wolf Warrior diplomats has been able to cover it up.
But in recent years, China has stepped up their game. Fake products are child's play. Fake military hardware? A parlor trick. Fake credentials? Boring. In the self-anointed "Central Nation," the new frontier is fake Humans!
No, I do not mean China has technologically leap-frogged the West and begun building an army of terminators. I simply mean China has found that it is easier to push a narrative when you have a pool of "experts" to parrot your line. They have also discovered that in the internet age, a person does not have to actually exist in order to be considered an expert. They just have to have a large enough social media footprint.
The Strange Case of Laurene Beaumond
It began (or at least first attracted the world's attention) when French publication Le Monde did an investigation on a series of CGTN articles allegedly written by "Laurene Beaumond." In these articles, the writer claims to be a "freelance journalist based in France, with a double degree in art history and archeology... and holds a master's degree in journalism" and that she lived in Beijing for almost seven years and currently lives in Urumqi with her family.
Le Monde, however, discovered that there is no record of any reporter by this name in the records of France's Commission of Independent Journalists, despite the fact that she claims to have been a reporter in French newsrooms for years (Guibert).
British website Unilad noticed the same thing I did; that the phrasing Beaumond uses is copied and pasted from Chinese textbooks and riddled with Chinese slogans that no Westerner uses even if they are on the Chinese payroll.
China's Foreign Ministry responded the only way they know how: by throwing a tantrum. Redditor DerJagger said it best.
I didn’t think that the French edition of a network nobody really watches would escalate into anything, but apparently it was such a big deal that it became a major topic of Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman’s Hua Chunying’s daily press conference. Agence France-Presse asked her about the controversy, and boy was she prepared for that question. Between the insults and gaslighting directed at the foreign press, Hua explained that the Foreign Ministry had confirmed with CGTN that Laurene is very much real and seemed to imply that she is not using an alias. There were some noticeable changes to Laurene’s persona, as Hua seems to have demoted her from a resident of Urumqi to a mere visitor.
Then came CGTN’s official statement. Contradicting Hua’s statement’s, Laurene is, in fact, using an alias, something that wasn’t explained in any of her articles as per standard journalistic practice. Director of People’s Daily Online France, Qian He, then spent quite a bit of time replying to dozens of Titter users who had posted about Laurene with CGTN’s statement. Then, lo and behold, Laurene appeared on Twitter! Well, not really since it was an obvious parody however Qian He thought it was real, eagerly engaging with the account to prove Laurene's realness.
Chinese state media followed Hua's cue and exploded in a frenzy of outrage that anyone had dared to question them. (Chen; Fowdy). Hua, followed this up by insisting she had contacted CGTN to ask about Beaumond and was assured "she really does exist." Gee, I'm convinced.
In short, a Chinese-government-owned media outlet (CGTN) published articles by someone claiming to have worked in France (yet not appearing in any French records). Then, when an ACTUAL French reporter pointed this out, China's response was "how dare you question China?!" Their foreign minister then berated the entire world press for daring to do any journalistic work that was not approved by China (how dare they go digging for ACTUAL information?! Filthy foreign barbarians). The same foreign minister (an officer of the Chinese government) then claimed to have contacted CGTN (an arm of the Chinese government) and asked "did you lie?" to which CGTN replied "no, but we can't show any proof," to which Minister Hua replied "see, world! There. Undeniable proof!"
Of course, what is missing from any of China's responses is any actual evidence. Step one was to say "oh, uh, there's no record of her because... er, because that's not her real name. I mean, never mind that she previously said it was." The given reason for this was fear of reprisals for writing anything favorable to China.
When you finish laughing at the irony of this undisguised Goebbels tactic, have a look at the drippingly sycophantic coverage of China by so many Western bloggers and Youtubers and ask what "reprisals" they've suffered.
I also loved how the same foreign minister who has such a habit of holding up complete medical records of Uighur prisoners at press conferences tried to say she could not disclose Beaumond's real name, location, or face, because of "privacy issues." Yeah, as though privacy has ever been a concern of the Chinese government.
Now, not to brag (because I'm not by any means the only one), but I was commenting on the likelihood that some of CGTN's Western-named writers probably didn't exist, long before this became a hot issue. I commented on it in an article on Nov 22, 2018...
...And again on Jan 6, 2019.
The first example I cited was by a "Dr. Summer," complete with a delightfully Chinglish grammatical error in the title (depends on inclusive? Really?)whose articles on CGTN (all of which are equally riddled with Chinese slogans, as well as the Chinese penchant for substituting vitriol for substance and throwing any pretense of objectivity to the four winds) begin with this disclaimer.
With a doctoral degree in communications from the Communication University of China, Dr. Summer has been working in the field of international journalism for 30 years.
If you want to see examples of "Dr. Summer's" work (and seriously, that name sounds like they couldn't decide whether they wanted a rapper or a James Bond villain), you can find them here, and here. Notice the same tell-tale hallmarks of Chinese journalism: Chinese slogans (win-win cooperation, shared destiny, as many repetitions of the words "imperialism" and "hegemony" as you can squeeze into any sentence with the US in it), bitterly emotional adjectives without a single citation or appeal to logic, and absolutely never a single word that even remotely implies China could be anything other than faultless and blameless while all opposing parties are villified.
The second example was a bit more bizarre. In this example, I referred to a CGTN article claiming to be written by "Manisha Chakraborty." CGTN did not get as creative with the backstory of this sock-puppet account as they did with Ms. Beaumond, listing him/her only as "a freelance Indian journalist." The problem is that a google search for the name "Manisha Chakraborty" DOES, in fact, come up with someone by that name. However, they are neither Indian, nor a journalist. Manisha Chakraborty is a mayoral candidate in a city in Bangladesh (Star Online Staff). It seems odd for someone in that position to be writing for CGTN. It seems rather obvious that CGTN needed a semi-Hindi-sounding name to use for their articles that relate to Southern and Central Asia, so they pulled the first one they could find online and started using it.
And we're to believe that these writers who speak broken English with the standard Chinese suite of errors, using Chinese slogans, in a Chinese rhetorical style, spouting China's state narratives verbatim, are not Chinese.
Keep trying, China.
They Didn't Stop With Fake Journalists
The next act in China's tragedy of comedy of errors came in the summer of 2021. After more than a year of bad press for carrying China's water in the original outbreak of Covid, the WHO finally realized that the world had noticed their complicity in China's cover-up and began calling for another investigation (read "an ACTUAL investigation") into the Wuhan lab.
Suddenly, a facebook account appears, allegedly belonging to a Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards (yes, such a Swiss-sounding name, isn't it? To the Chinese, all foreigners are the same, so they didn't realize that different countries in Europe have VASTLY different suites of names). This "Swiss biologist" claimed to have un-named "friends and colleagues" at the WHO who allegedly told him that the US was pressuring the WHO on this issue. Evidence? Sources? Names? Of course not. Just a "trust me, bro" assurance that "insiders" were claiming that the US was pressuring them.
Read that. Twice.
(cough)Goebbelstacticsagain!!(cough)
Oh. Sorry. Had a little glaringly obvious Chinese hypocrisy caught in my throat.
And of course, this post by this "Swiss biologist" was shared by a few other fake Chinese accounts and then by REAL accounts belonging to Chinese State Media gurus, and virality gave the illusion of legitimacy, just as China intended. And frankly, if they'd had enough brains to use an actual Swiss name they might have gotten away with it.
Anyway, from here the story gets pretty familiar. Somebody noticed that the Facebook account of this "Swiss biologist" was only a few weeks old and had only a handful of friends, almost as if it had been created just for the purpose of making this post (Davidson). This, coupled with the decidedly Anglo-American name, prompted the Swiss Embassy to look into the matter. They did not pull punches or take any steps to soften the blow to "the feelings of the Chinese people" in their very-public response on Twitter.
Well, in China's defense, the Party did give a rare demonstration that they DO actually possess the capacity to learn, because rather than standing their ground and making even bigger fools of themselves as they did in the Beaumond case, they scrambled to take down all references to the fictitious biologist (Al-Jazeera Staff; Tang).
By the time all was said and done, even Chinese sycophant Mark Zuckerberg had little choice but to wipe 500 fake accounts belonging to his master's faithful minions (BBC Staff; Milmo)
Desperate Times and All That
It's honestly gotten kind of pathetic. I mean, once upon a time, China paid pet foreigners, "white monkeys" as they were nicknamed, to do their propaganda work for them. But now, it appears not even money is enough to make foreigners endure the humiliation of being an obvious patsy. Either that, or with the economic squeeze brought on by the Evergrande collapse and a host of other factors, China is simply too broke to be able to afford to hire them anymore.
But that, is another story for another article.
Works Cited
Al-Jazeera Staff. "Fictitious Swiss scientist entangles China’s state media." Al Jazeera. 11 Aug, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/11/fictitious-swiss-scientist-entangles
Badkar, Mamta & Smith, Cooper. "26 Things That China Ripped Off." Business Insider. 27 Aug, 2013. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/things-that-china-copied-from-the-world-2013-8#apple-but-it-isnt-just-fake-apple-devices-that-have-been-ripped-off-china-has-ripped-off-apple-stores-too-11
BBC Staff. "Facebook uncovers Chinese network behind fake expert." BBC. 2 Dec, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-59456548
Beaumond, Laurene (allegedly). "« Mon » Xinjiang : halte à la tyrannie des fake news." CGTN (French Edition). 28 Mar, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://francais.cgtn.com/n/BfJEA-cA-HAA/DcCEIA/index.html
Chakraborty, Manisha. "Opinion: President Xi's Taiwan speech maps out peaceful reunification of Chinese mainland and Taiwan." CGTN. 2 Jan, 2019. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514f32557a4e31457a6333566d54/share_p.html
Chen Qingqing. "Le Monde owes an apology for accusing Chinese state media of creating a fake French journalist to speak the truth about Xinjiang: scholar." Global Times. 7 Apr, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2021. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1220508.shtml
China Mike. "16 Hilarious Fake Chinese Brands Knockoff FAILS." China-mike.com. 30 Apr, 2020. Web. 13 Jan, 2020. https://www.china-mike.com/funny/fake-chinese-brands/
Davidson, Helen. "Chinese media in fake news claims over Swiss scientist critical of US." The Guardian. 11 Aug, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/11/chinese-media-fake-news-claims-swiss-scientist-wilson-edwards-critical-of-us
DerJagger. "Chinese State Television Apparently Invented A Fake French Journalist To Defend Against Uighur Genocide Allegations." Reddit. 3 Apr, 2021, 12:14:31 AM Eastern Central Time. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/mittq2/the_case_of_cgtns_fake_french_journalist_keeps/
'Dr. Summer.' "A stronger China, a more responsible country." CGTN. 4 Oct, 2019. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2019-10-02/A-stronger-China-a-more-responsible-country-KsQ39UeLwk/index.html
'Dr. Summer.' "Opinion: APEC's future depends on inclusive and win-win cooperation." CGTN. 18 Nov, 2018. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d674d33676a4e30457a6333566d54/share_p.html?fbclid=IwAR1XzFGuvBCeLkqa3EfCCjmPCt_56XuO5JrcbzMegXo2WJd72PKYlz-jhrs
'Dr. Summer.' "'Sign or kill' tactic solves no problem." CGTN. 22 May, 2019. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514e7951444f34457a6333566d54/share_p.html
Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing. "Looking for Wilson Edwards, alleged 🇨🇭 biologist, cited in press and social media in China over the last several days. If you exist, we would like to meet you! But it is more likely that this is a fake news, and we call on the Chinese press and netizens to take down the posts." Twitter. 1:34 PM, 10 Aug, 2021.
Accessed 13 Jan, 2022.https://twitter.com/swissembchina/status/1425042973289504770?lang=en
- swissembchina
Fowdy, Tom. "How Le Monde pretended a French reporter didn't exist." 5 Apr, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. http://en.people.cn/n3/2021/0405/c90000-9835924.html
Flying Magazine Staff. "50 Years of Chinese Aviation Knockoffs." Flying Mag. 4 Feb, 2013. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.flyingmag.com/photo-gallery-photos-50-years-chinese-aviation-knockoffs/#page-6
Guibert, Nathalie. "Controverse autour d’un article de propagande de la télévision d’Etat chinoise sur les Ouïgours." Le Monde. 31Mar, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2021/03/31/quand-la-television-chinoise-cgtn-invente-une-journaliste-francaise_6075155_3210.html
Milmo, Dan. "Facebook takes down Chinese network behind fake Swiss biologist Covid claims." The Guardian. 2 Dec, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/02/facebook-owner-meta-takes-down-chinese-network-spreading-fake-covid-posts
Rosemurgey, Emma. "Chinese State Television Apparently Invented A Fake French Journalist To Defend Against Uighur Genocide Allegations." Unilad. 2 Apr, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/chinese-state-television-apparently-invented-a-fake-french-journalist-to-defend-against-uighur-genocide-allegations/
Star Online Staff. "People wearing badges of boat snatch ballot papers: Manisha." Star Online. 30 Jul, 2018. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://img.thedailystar.net/barisal-city-election-2018/manisha-chakraborty-alleged-people-wearing-badges-boat-snatch-ballot-papers-1613329
Tang, Didi. "China invents Swiss expert for Wuhan lab propaganda." The Times. (UK). 12 Aug, 2021. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/china-accused-of-coronavirus-lab-leak-fake-news-over-non-existent-swiss-biologist-g6rxv2gm2
Woodruff, Bob; Yiu, Karson & Valiente, Alexa. "China’s 'Fake' Cities Are Eerie Replicas of Paris, London and Jackson Hole, Wyoming." ABC News. 12 Apr, 2016. Web. 13 Jan, 2022. https://abcnews.go.com/International/chinas-fake-cities-eerie-replicas-paris-london-jackson/story?id=36525453