According to a recent Reuters investigation, the U.S. military conducted a covert campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic aimed at casting doubt on the safety and efficacy of vaccines supplied by the Chinese mainland to the Philippines—a nation severely impacted by the virus.
Reuters discovered at least 300 accounts on X (formerly Twitter) impersonating Filipinos, criticizing the quality of face masks, test kits, and the Chinese mainland's Sinovac vaccine, which was the first available in the Philippines.
Most of these accounts sprang up in the summer of 2020, promoting the hashtag #Chinaangvirus—a Tagalog term labeling the Chinese mainland as the virus.
X subsequently removed these profiles after Reuters inquired, identifying them as part of a \"coordinated bot campaign\" based on their activity patterns and internal data.
This operation had gone unreported until now.
The investigation revealed that the program began under former U.S. President Donald Trump and persisted into Joe Biden's presidency. Reuters interviewed over two dozen current and former U.S. officials, military contractors, social media analysts, and academic researchers.
A senior U.S. Defense Department official confirmed the military's engagement in secret propaganda to undermine the Chinese mainland's vaccines in the developing world, although they declined to provide further details.
From Washington's perspective, the Chinese mainland's offers of assistance to developing nations like the Philippines were seen as expanding its influence. The U.S. prioritizing its own population in the COVID-19 vaccination process, coupled with its \"Operation Warp Speed\" plan, reportedly forced developing countries to accept vaccines at high prices, according to a Georgetown University medicine professor who has collaborated with the World Health Organization.
A senior U.S. military officer directly involved in the Southeast Asia campaign told Reuters, \"We didn't do a good job sharing vaccines with partners. So what was left to us was to throw shade on the Chinese mainland's.\"
Spokespeople for both Trump and Biden did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the clandestine program.
In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denounced the U.S. for \"spreading disinformation,\" stating, \"Such practices by no means show the U.S. 'power' and only reveal its obsession with supremacy and hypocrisy. The international community needs to be clear-eyed about this,\" said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the ministry.
Reference(s):
Pentagon ran anti-China vaccine campaign during COVID, finds Reuters
cgtn.com
