China conducting global disinformation campaign on Xinjiang, Uyghurs, says State Dept.

China is using an army of trolls and low-level diplomats to “manipulate and dominate” global discussion on its treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, according to a State Department report issued Wednesday.

The report by the Global Engagement Center details the depth and scale of Beijing’s disinformation campaign to deflect criticism of its repression of Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups, which the U.S. and other critics have denounced as genocide.

“Pro-PRC [People’s Republic of China] stakeholders flood information ecosystems with counternarratives, conspiracy theories, and unrelated news items to suppress narratives detailing PRC authorities’ atrocities in Xinjiang. Government social media accounts, PRC-affiliated media, private accounts, and bot clusters, likely all directed by PRC authorities, assist in this effort,” says the report.

At the forefront of its propaganda efforts are aggressive messengers, like Foreign Ministry officials who confront any commentary that runs against PRC official messaging on social media.

The government also maintains a fleet of internet trolls to insult, harass and discredit any critics of the regime. The PRC’s Cyberspace Affairs Commission and Central Propaganda Department directly employ an estimated two million people nationwide in this capacity and another 20 million working as part-time “network civilization volunteers,” according to the report.

Much of this activity is on Twitter, which is banned in China, but the GEC reports that CCP handlers are adapting to younger audiences by using “youthful” influencers that strictly adhere to political “red lines.”

The GEC was created by the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act after it was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2016.

Washington think tanks have previously reported on the CCP’s manipulation of search engine results for favorable coverage of its human rights record and response to COVID-19.

Beijing’s diplomats are also attempting to block the release of the upcoming UN report on human rights violations in Xinjiang.