According to a probe, Beijing is trying to spread doubt and mislead before the US election.

This week, U.S. intelligence agencies stressed that, in the run-up to the November presidential election, China, Russia, and Iran continue to be the key foreign powers aiming to sway American voters.

The most active participant, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is the Kremlin, which manipulates narratives to support Donald Trump’s candidacy through the use of artificial intelligence, phony accounts, and manipulated photos.

By contrast, China has not made any direct attempts to sway the results of the 2024 presidential election. Disinformation specialist Sarah Cook, an independent analyst, pointed out that part of the reason for this caution is the strong bipartisan consensus in Washington about the dangers posed by China’s autocratic regime.

What stories is China pushing on social media in the forty-odd days leading up to the US elections, and how can they influence voters in the US?

Enhancing Divisiveness

201 China-related accounts on the social media platform X are being monitored as part of a collaborative investigation by Voice of America and the Taiwanese social media analytics company Doublethink Lab. Increasingly divisive domestic issues in the US in an effort to foster mistrust and further polarize society is one of these stories’ central themes.

Chinese agents are amplifying contentious societal problems like as immigration, race, gun control, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and crime rates through real and AI-generated photos and videos.

Known for being “a sweet and salty little girl who takes life seriously and shares positive energy,” CongCong is a well-known account that routinely creates posts that are then shared by others.

Her posts, nevertheless, are not at all encouraging. One pinned post had a graphic picture of a gun aimed towards Gaza with statements of genocide captioned, portraying Israel as the shooter, the US as the weapon, and the EU as the silencing entity.

Within the network of China-related accounts that VOA tracks, 40 accounts shared the post.

Another purported seeder account, Little Sister Muxi, posted a comparison chart that contrasted the advantages enjoyed by Israelis with the difficulties faced by Americans, such as health care prices and student loans.

In the US, opinions on the Israel-Gaza conflict are now starkly divided. There are certain Americans who strongly disagree with what they see to be excessive violence, while others vigorously defend Israel’s right to self-defense.

The network recently attempted to stir up debates around Intel’s 15% layoff announcement, with seeder account CongCong declaring, “This is the decline of the United States, a recession created by the United States itself.” A total of 36 accounts shared this message.

Additional instances include disseminating cartoons from China’s official Global Times that make fun of the United States for funding Ukraine.

Artificial intelligence-generated visuals show Americans without homes, suggesting that American civilians are overlooked as the government invests billions on foreign wars.

The Spamouflage network, a much larger state-sponsored operation meant to help the Chinese government while hurting detractors, is also responsible for the widespread distribution of fake videos depicting America’s drug epidemic.

This strategy uses information warfare to disrupt Western alliances and widen social divides, much like Russia did during the 2016 US elections.

MAGAflage

Two “MAGAflage” networks, totaling 25 accounts that purportedly supported Republican candidate Trump and sought to interact with actual American voters, were discovered throughout our study.

After an attempt on Trump’s life on July 13, one network, known as MAGAflage 1 and including ten accounts, started disseminating pro-Trump propaganda widely. These accounts, which promoted Trump as America’s savior and featured pro-China content and divisive U.S. issues, were created using stolen profiles and photographs from reliable sources. Following the VOA story, these accounts were suspended by X for “breaking X’s rules.”

The seeder account of MAGAflage 2 adopts a more circumspect approach, in contrast to the MAGAflage 1 network, which included an aggressive posting strategy that promoted China and regularly referenced official media sources. With a few notable exceptions, this person focuses more on U.S. election subjects and hardly ever posts about Chinese-related issues.

The usernames of all accounts contain emoticons. The American flag appears as one of the emoticons in twelve out of the fifteen accounts.

They disapprove of the immigration policies of the Biden administration, spread hoaxes, and assert that the January 6 Capitol riot was caused by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

According to Jasper Hewitt, a digital intelligence specialist at Doublethink Lab, “these accounts are noteworthy because they go to great lengths to pretend to be American citizens and tried to hide their connection to China,” he said to VOA Mandarin.

Interestingly, unlike other trolls, these identities don’t spread anti-Israel propaganda. Recently, Trump warned Jewish voters not to back Vice President Kamala Harris, praising himself as Israel’s “protector.”

“I believe this demonstrates that the individuals running these operations have a solid grasp of the kinds of content that may appeal to the users they are attempting to engage with,” Hewitt continued.

In the meantime, investigators are finding more and more reports disparaging candidates in both parties. A Chinese-affiliated threat actor named Storm-1852 was recently brought to Microsoft’s attention. Storm-1852 has been active on social media, engaging with election-related information and highlighting a highly interactive strategy that involves reposting content, answering comments, and surveying users.

There doesn’t seem to be a candidate that this network prefers.

It is true that criticism of both candidates is expressed in the majority of the Spamouflage content that we have seen so far. But it’s still very crucial that we discovered two MAGAflage networks and haven’t come across any other accounts that back Harris, said Hewitt of Doublethink Lab.

local contenders

The majority of Chinese attempts, according to U.S. intelligence officials’ most recent assessment, are directed towards state and local politicians who are thought to be antagonistic to Beijing rather than Trump or Harris.

We discovered a TikTok video that ridiculed Republican U.S. Senator Josh Hawley for persistently asking Intel executives about forced labor in Xinjiang and referred to him as a “anti-China senator.” Hawley is running for office again this year.

Another video makes fun of Democratic U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler of New York, implying that he seemed to nod off during a session when the families of the victims gave testimony.

This year’s contests will include the presidential election as well as contests for all 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats. Online influence tactics targeting lawmakers who criticize China are likely to occur.

Among them are participants in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). This past July, Jim McGovern, a representative from Massachusetts, who has been vocal against China’s violations of human rights, was denied admission into the country.

The co-chair of the commission and a Republican from New Jersey, Representative Chris Smith, has long been interested in Chinese religious freedom and human rights.

Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio who is running for re-election this year, has come under fire from Chinese official media for supporting a ban on electric vehicles that are manufactured in China.