The Pentagon is seen on August 27, 2023, in Washington
THE UNITED STATES ran online anti-vaccination campaigns at the height of the Covid pandemic to discredit China, a Reuters investigation has revealed.
The news agency’s probe focuses on the Philippines, where a Pentagon-directed operation from 2020-21 set up fake social media accounts which sowed doubt about the effectiveness of China’s Sinovac vaccine — at the time the only one available there — and other forms of life-saving aid from face masks to test kits.
It identified over 300 accounts matching descriptions shared with it by former US military officials, many deploying the hashtag #Chinaangvirus (“China is the virus” in Tagalog). These gained tens of thousands of followers.
Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO reports from the start of Kunming’s Belt and Road media forum, where 200 journalists from 71 countries celebrated a new openness and optimism, forged by China’s enormous contribution to global development
Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO reports on TUC Congress discussions on how to confront the far right and rebuild the left’s appeal to workers
