In addition to spreading propaganda and disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic on social media via the Chinese Embassy in Slovakia’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts, Beijing also relied on more traditional approaches—including Slovak proxies in media and politics.

A survey of affiliate unions of the International Federation of Journalists indicated that the PRC used the COVID-19 pandemic to boost its image in global media. The PRC expanded media manipulation tactics that they had already been employing internationally to spread positive narratives.

As European Union officials planned to document in a formal report how Beijing and Moscow promoted disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, the PRC pressured officials to revise certain language.

Though the Kremlin and Beijing both employed information manipulation tactics to service their respective global agendas during the COVID-19 pandemic, their long-term objectives differed. Russia aimed to destabilize the U.S., while the PRC sought to protect and enhance its own reputation.

Beijing undertook multiple COVID-19 diplomacy activities in the Pacific to project a positive image about its pandemic response: foreign aid in the form of grants and donated medical supplies, shared information between Chinese and foreign health officials, and leveraging mainstream media to publicize the PRC’s support for foreign countries.

Beijing leaned on a Russian disinformation strategy and turned to a network of Kremlin proxies to spread false or misleading messages that offset international criticism about its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As countries across Latin America began vaccinating their citizens with Sputnik V, CoronaVac, and Sinopharm’s vaccine, China and Russia were poised to boost their standing in a region where Beijing wanted access to oil, copper, and soybeans and Moscow sought to build stronger diplomatic and economic ties.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity for the Chinese Communist Party to tout the superiority of its governance model by leveraging emerging technologies, like 5G networks that connected front-line health care workers and patients to medical experts in Beijing’s remote consultation platforms.

Beijing claimed to be a target of disinformation campaigns on Twitter and called on the social media platform to remove accounts that attacked the PRC’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The PRC had some previous success in pushing back against Western tech firms as it sought to promote its own worldview.

Beijing deleted Chinese novelist Fang Fang’s blog posts describing conditions in China during the COVID-19 pandemic, and canceled her Chinese book publication. Fang and her translator were also subjected to online threats and harassment.

Critics slammed the Philippine government for allowing what they called Chinese propaganda to air on a state-run radio station. An episode of Wow China, a collaboration between the Philippine Broadcasting Service and China Radio Interrnational, showcased China’s COVID-19 assistance efforts.

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe, it was accompanied by a dangerous surge of false information—an “infodemic.” Russian Leader Vladimir Putin played a key role in the spread of false information as part of a wider effort to discredit the West and promote his own agenda.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center began an interactive map that tracked the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide. The center changed the way the map referred to Taiwan, labeling it as “Taiwan and environs” (which is one way the CCP’s refers to Taiwan) before switching back to just “Taiwan.”

PRC embassy officials published statements criticizing global press outlets for their coverage of COVID-19. Chinese embassies aimed to promote the idea that the CCP’s response to the outbreak was effective and transparent.

The dominance of Chinese content in Thai news long preceded the COVID-19 outbreak. Since 2019, Chinese media has made tremendous inroads into Thai-language news, including English-language Thai newspapers.