“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media

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The report of ASD, a German initiative for the protection of democracy, which unites disinformation experts, shows that during the year of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the information space of China and the Russian Federation has become similar: the same narratives and theses are heard in the media of both countries.

We analyzed the main Chinese media – China Daily, People’s Daily, and Global Times – and analyzed the fakes we found. According to Similar Web data, the audience of these newspapers is more than 500,000 people.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

The Chinese government controls the media in the country

Note that major Chinese media groups such as China Central Television (CCTV), China National Radio (CNR), China Daily, People’s Daily, and Global Times are state-owned and directly controlled by the government.

“The People’s Republic of China is the world’s largest prison for journalists, and its regime is waging a campaign of repression against journalism and the right to information around the world,” RFS, an international non-profit organization that promotes freedom of information, said in a statement.

If the news about the war in Ukraine dominates the headlines of the Western mass media, the coverage of the war by Chinese journalists is quite limited: the information does not appear so often and it is mostly just a general report on the situation at the front (missile strikes, captured territories, and the like).

An interesting feature of the Chinese media is that for many news, the source of information is official messages from the Russian authorities, in particular the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. No alternative opinion.

For example, CGTN submits a report from the Ministry of Defense of Russia that massive missile strikes on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine led to the interruption of the supply of Western-made weapons to the front.

Or, for example, the news that the Russian Ministry of Defense found evidence that the US is financing the development of biological weapons in Ukraine.

Also, Chinese mass media do not call a spade a spade: all newspapers avoid the word “war”, you will not find any mention of war in the context of Ukraine.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Residential buildings damaged by the fire of Russian troops in Kyiv at the beginning of the war, but in China state media still use the term “conflict”

For example, CGTN employees use the terms “conflict” and “tension”.

Journalists of the People’s Daily said that US military aid to Ukraine only prolongs the “conflict”, and by providing weapons, “the US military-industrial complex receives huge profits.”

In another article, it is said that NATO has sent 150 of its military personnel to Ukraine.

People’s Daily journalists write that the USA was also behind the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. Global Time has an article that NATO expansion has led to the “crisis in Ukraine”.

The newspaper writes about [Ukrainian military unit — ed.] Azov in the context of an “ultra-right neo-Nazi group”.

Let’s analyze these fakes in more detail.

US-funded biolaboratories in Ukraine: true or fake?

The Ukrainian Review previously analyzed this fake in detail.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called reports about the presence of biolaboratories in Ukraine misinformation.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Biolaboratories in Ukraine are not under US control

In 2005, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health signed an agreement with the United States Department of Defense on cooperation in the field of preventing the spread of technologies, pathogens and knowledge that can be used in the development of biological weapons.

The purpose of the agreement is to counter the threat of outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases. The agreement is in the public domain, and there is no mention of “military biological programs”.

As part of the Biological Threat Reduction Program, the United States modernized laboratories in Ukraine to achieve a higher level of biosafety, conducted research projects, engaged in epidemiological surveillance, etc.

The program also specifies that Ukrainian biological laboratories belong only to the Government of Ukraine.

The US State Department issued a statement denying the existence of biological laboratories in Ukraine:

“The United States does not own or operate any chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine, it fully complies with its obligations under the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological Weapons, and does not develop or possess such. weapons anywhere.”

US Military Aid Only Prolongs War: what is wrong with this statement?

Indeed, the United States of America provides a lot of help: since January 2021, it has provided Ukraine with more than $37.6 billion in military aid.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Yevhen Savisko, political expert, resident of the “Cabinet of Experts” of the public movement “All Together!”

But is this aid really prolonging the war? Yevhen Savisko, political expert, resident of the “Cabinet of Experts” of the public movement “All Together!” answers.

“US military aid to Ukraine helps millions of Ukrainians to survive, prevent humanitarian, social, economic, and environmental catastrophes, the destruction of Ukrainians as an ethnic group, and preserve the integrity of Ukraine as a state.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Ukrainian soldiers with American weapons

The support that comes from the United States helps to endure and win, but does not prolong the war. The Armed Forces of Ukraine have already proven their effectiveness, motivation and ability to fight against a much stronger, more numerous and better armed enemy. The current war is a war for the independence of Ukraine, and the provided military aid is only a means and an instrument of armed resistance, which the Ukrainian army is waging against the aggressor. The United States, as one of the founding states of the UN, acts in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations “To maintain international peace and security and to this end take effective collective measures to prevent and eliminate threats to peace and suppress acts of aggression or other violations of peace…”. Thus, the government of the United States took on the functions of countering Russia, an aggressor state, and also a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which blocks all efforts that the UN should carry out to withdraw the occupying forces from Ukrainian territory and restore Ukraine within internationally recognized borders”.

NATO servicemen in Ukraine: nothing more than a myth

As the BBC reports, the narrative about “NATO soldiers in Ukraine” is being actively promoted in the Russian media, but there is no evidence for this. So, the Chinese mass media are once again repeating Russian propaganda.

“There is no evidence of the participation of NATO ground forces in Ukraine. Nor the fact that NATO commanders lead Ukrainian units on the battlefield. There is also a very low probability that this will happen in the future as NATO seeks to mitigate the risks of escalation,” says Edward Arnold of the Royal Joint Services Institute (RUSI), a defense and security think tank.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Ukraine seeks NATO, but even in the second year of the war, this remains a prospect, not a fait accompli

“All aid to Ukraine concerns arms, ammunition, and the military-technical sphere. Not a single active NATO serviceman is fighting in the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” adds Yevhen Savisko.

Did the USA stand behind the revolutions in Ukraine?

This narrative is similar to the Russian propaganda claim that Ukraine is under the control of other states, including the United States.

There is no evidence that the US was behind the Orange Revolution.

It is worth analyzing history to see that all revolutions were only a manifestation of the will of the Ukrainian people, a desire to protect their rights.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

The Orange Revolution in 2004 was caused by electoral fraud

The Orange Revolution in 2004 was caused by electoral fraud. Protesters, dressed in the orange color of the campaign of Viktor Yushchenko, one of the presidential candidates, took to the streets.

In 2013-2014, the Revolution of Dignity became the reaction of Ukrainians to the sudden departure of then-President Viktor Yanukovych from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

The rejection of the European course of President Viktor Yanukovych sparked a Revolution of Dignity

“The peculiarity of the color revolutions was not American support and Russian-Chinese hostility. They were rooted in a specific situation after the Cold War, in countries where democracy was promised but not implemented. Western support combined with Russian hostility contributed to the Ukrainian color revolution, but did not create it,” says Massimo Introvigne, a former OSCE observer.

Does NATO expansion lead to war?

This thesis is inherent in Russian propaganda and is based on the fact that NATO supposedly “promised not to expand to the East.”

However, back in 2014, NATO issued a special statement in which it was claimed that there were no agreements “on the non-enlargement of the Alliance”.

“NATO expansion” as a pretext for a full-scale invasion is one of the weakest arguments of anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

First, if the war is a reaction to the expansion of NATO, then for unknown reasons it was “late” by 10-15 years. The last major expansion of the North Atlantic Alliance took place in 2004, when the countries of Eastern Europe and, in particular, the Baltic countries joined the bloc.

Over the next more than 15 years, only 4 small countries joined the alliance — and all of them are in the Balkans, in the south of Europe, one and a half thousand kilometers from the Russian Federation. By 2021-2022 (when the Kremlin resorted to ultimatums, threats and invasion of Ukraine), NATO was already a “closed club”: Ukraine and Georgia were once again not provided with the “Action Plan for NATO Membership”; Moldova, having at that time a pro-Russian president, itself curtailed cooperation with NATO; Finland and Sweden did not raise the issue of joining the alliance, maintaining neutrality, etc.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Dmytro Egorov, adviser to the head of the NGO “Strategic Vision”

Secondly, the Russian Federation decided to “react” to the imaginary expansion of the “aggressive” NATO with a war in Ukraine, where there were only a few dozen [65, – ed.] military personnel of the North Atlantic Alliance – instructors and “bureaucrats”. But at that time, for some reason, the Kremlin did not feel any threat from several tens of thousands of soldiers of the regular army of the Baltic countries and the 3-4 thousand soldiers of the international NATO contingent stationed there, which were located close to St. Petersburg. In the same way, Moscow did not care about the threat to Kaliningrad from more than 150,000 Polish soldiers. The explanation is obvious: NATO “aggression” was considered unlikely, but the absence of North Atlantic forces in Ukraine was guaranteed.

Separately, it is worth noting: if Russian propaganda had to simply invent “NATO bases” in Ukraine (for example, training centers with foreign instructors were attributed to them), then there were real US military bases in other countries near the Russian Federation, which did not bother the Kremlin at all. Thus, until 2005, the Americans were based in Uzbekistan, until 2014 — in Kyrgyzstan.

Thirdly, dissatisfaction with the expansion of NATO did not prevent the Russian Federation from cooperating fruitfully with the bloc, sometimes acting as its reliable ally and sometimes promoting the presence of the alliance in various regions of the world. NATO’s cooperation with the Russian Federation regarding Afghanistan is illustrative here. The Russian Federation supported the operation of the international coalition in Afghanistan, which began in 2001. In 2003-2004, it openly cooperated with NATO on various aspects of the operation. In 2008-2009, it provided its airspace and ground infrastructure for military transport and NATO support. In 2012, a plan to set up an intermediate NATO point at the airfield in Ulyanovsk was discussed. The leaders of the Russian Federation then were today’s ardent “hawks” like Lavrov and Rogozin. Even in 2021 (!), according to the Wall Street Journal, the USA and the Russian Federation discussed the possibility of joint use of Russian military bases in Central Asia,” explains Dmytro Egorov, adviser to the head of the Strategic Vision NGO.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Ukrainian military trains to use Western-style weapons

“There are a number of reasons why Russia attacked Ukraine, but none of them have anything to do with NATO. In fact, it is Volodymyr Putin who should be given the prize for the immediate expansion of NATO: Sweden and Finland did not even dream of joining any military or military-political alliances. However, already in April 2022, the leaders of these countries declared their desire to join the North Atlantic Alliance, because after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, they do not feel safe, and only NATO can provide it.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO is the result of an absolutely inadequate and aggressive policy of the Russian Federation

Before this, the bloc’s expansion took place through the Balkan countries. In 2017, Montenegro joined NATO, and in 2020 – the Republic of North Macedonia. All. That is, NATO did not threaten the Russian Federation in any way, except in someone’s fantasies.

The real reasons for the invasion of the Russian Federation were the desire to destroy the independent and sovereign state of Ukraine and to physically destroy Ukrainians as an ethnic group,” Yevhen Savisko comments on this thesis.

Chinese fakes about the “Azov” UAF’s unit

For a comment on this thesis, we turned to Alyona Malichenko, fact-checker of the “Behind the News” project:

“The Chinese media supposedly maintain a neutral position when covering the war in Ukraine, but in reality, repeat Russian narratives, in particular about “Nazism”.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Alyona Malichenko, fact-checker

To explain why propagandists, call Azov Nazis, it is worth going back to 2015. From that time on, the Russian propaganda machine began to identify nationalism with Nazism, and to consider Ukrainian nationalists as one of its main enemies.

According to propagandists, the formation of “Azov” is based on a certain ideology – a kind of mixture of neo-Nazism, racism, anti-Semitism and who knows what other “isms”. The fact that among the founders there were people with far-right views is cited as proof of this. But, first of all, these people are no longer in the ranks of the regiment. Secondly, there is no real evidence that would confirm the neo-Nazi ideology of the Azovians. Likewise, there are no military formations and units in Ukraine (either in the ranks of the National Guard or in the Armed Forces of Ukraine) that were created on ideological grounds.

As for objections about the training of Western terrorists, the roots of this can be found in an initiative in the US Congress. In 2019, Democratic congressmen demanded that “Azov” be added to the list of foreign terrorist organizations. Then the author of the appeal – congressman Max Rose – claimed that the battalion was connected to an Australian responsible for the terrorist attacks in New Zealand in 2019. They were connected (“Azov” and Max Rose, ed.) only by a symbol: according to the congressman, the terrorist wore the “sign of Azov”. This initiative failed and “Azov” is not on the list of terrorist organizations and never was.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

Soldiers of the military unit “Azov”

In response to the congressman’s accusations, the American think tank Atlantic Council published an article “Why Azov should not be recognized as a foreign terrorist organization.” In particular, the author reported that the symbol worn by the terrorist from New Zealand is not the “‎Azov” symbol, but a patch with the so-called “Black Sun”. This symbol was appropriated by Nazi Germany and later became a popular symbol among right-wing radicals around the world. In 2014, “Azov” indeed used symbols reminiscent of the Black Sun, but it is incorrect to associate it exclusively with “Azov”.

Currently, the official symbol on the chevrons and flags of the brigade is the sign “Idea of a nation” – a monogram in the form of two letters (“I” and “N”). This sign is actively used by Ukrainian nationalist organizations. According to the Russians, it also allegedly indicates Nazi views, because it is similar to the “Wolfsangel” heraldic charge, which was on the chevrons of some units of Nazi Germany during World War II. Instead, they ignore the fact that this rune has been known since the Middle Ages and is present on a number of coats of arms of German cities.

“NATO troops in Ukraine and bio laboratories”: an analysis of the Chinese mass media, The Ukrainian Review

The famous photograph of a fighter of the Azov unit Dmytro Kozatskyi “Orest” before leaving the territory of the Azov-Steel plant

The date of publication of the article in the Global Times is not coincidental – it was on May 17, 2022 that the operation to rescue Ukrainian military personnel blocked on the territory of the Azovstal plant began, who after 86 days received an order to stop defense and lay down their arms. Since the attention of the whole world was focused on the defenders of Mariupol, propagandists tried to divert attention and denigrate the defenders of Azovstal, who became a symbol of Ukrainian indomitability.”

It is also important to note that the Ukrainian government in 2022 strengthened laws on punishment for anti-Semitism and racial discrimination to curb the spread of far-right ideology.

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The Chinese mass media repeat the narratives of Russia, which it uses to explain the reasons for military aggression against an independent sovereign state — Ukraine.

The purpose of such manipulations is to shift responsibility for the war from Russia to third parties: NATO, Azov, the United States, and others.

Anna Ostymchuk