China says US is an ‘empire of lies’ as it hits back at report into information manipulation

The United States is the true “empire of lies”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday, lashing out at a report that accused Beijing of ploughing billions of dollars annually into information manipulation efforts.

Despite the unprecedented resources devoted to the campaign, Beijing had hit “major setbacks” when targeting democratic countries, due to local media and civil society resistance, according to the report, which was produced under a congressional mandate to detail state information manipulation.

The report has disregarded facts, and is itself false information, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

The agencies of the US State Department that produced the report “were the source of false information and the command post of ‘cognitive warfare’,” Beijing said.

“Facts have repeatedly proven that the United States is the true ‘empire of lies’,” it added.

China’s bid to hold sway over US policy poses ‘threat of our lifetime’

The US report comes amid controversy over China’s attempts in recent years to increase the global footprint of its government-controlled media.

Beijing is seeking to combat the negative images of China it feels are propagated by global media.