Unmasking Anti-Semitism in Chinese Media: How False Narratives Fuel Global Misinformation

Anti-Semitism in Chinese Media

A direct attack on election fake information: Do Jews control the US government?

Editor’s note:

This series of reports is an in-depth investigation jointly launched by Voice of America and Taiwan Democracy Lab (Doublethink Lab). We use cutting-edge big data analysis to uncover China’s cyber operations and analyze false information about the U.S. election. Reprints are kindly requested to indicate that they are from Voice of America.

A joint investigation by Voice of America and Taiwan Democracy Lab has revealed a network of spam accounts on social media platform X disseminating anti-Semitic misinformation linked to Beijing. These accounts propagate conspiracy theories alleging Jewish control over the U.S. government and frame Jewish influence as a threat to China, particularly in the context of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

The investigation identified over 30 posts that gained significant traction, garnering hundreds of thousands of views and highlighting a broader trend of anti-Semitic narratives being amplified online. Despite the Chinese government’s attempts to distance itself from these sentiments, anti-Semitic rhetoric continues to proliferate on Chinese social media, reflecting a concerning rise in hostility towards Jewish individuals amidst geopolitical tensions.

Key Concepts

• A network of spam accounts on social media platform X is spreading anti-Semitic misinformation linked to Beijing.
• Conspiracy theories alleging Jewish control over the U.S. government have gained traction, particularly after the Israel-Hamas war.
• Over 30 anti-Semitic posts targeting U.S. presidential candidates were identified, suggesting their allegiance to Jewish interests.
• The majority of anti-Semitic content originated from three main spam accounts within a larger network of at least 140 accounts.
• Analysts believe that the Chinese government’s promotion of anti-Semitic narratives serves its anti-Western agenda.
• U.S. intelligence officials have raised alarms about China’s influence in the upcoming presidential election, which China denies.
• The Antisemitism Awareness Act passed by the U.S. House aims to address anti-Semitism in educational programs.
• An emerging narrative on Chinese social media falsely claims that a proposed U.S. bill establishes Jews as having supreme status.
• Anti-Semitic sentiments in China have risen following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2022, and Israel’s military response.
• Despite historically low levels of anti-Semitism in China, recent trends show a concerning increase in anti-Jewish rhetoric online.

With almost a month to go before the US presidential election, a joint investigation by Voice of America and Taiwan Democracy Lab has found multiple spam accounts on social media platform X that spread anti-Semitic false information. These accounts linked to Beijing have posted and forwarded conspiracy theories accusing Jewish elites of secretly controlling the US government and suggesting that both candidates in this year’s US presidential election are agents of Jewish interests.

Although most of these posts were posted this summer, similar false information has long been spreading on China’s traditionally strictly managed Internet. A large number of social media bloggers and commentators have exaggerated what they call Jewish influence as one of the biggest threats facing China today and used it to justify Beijing’s authoritarian rule.

Analysts told VOA that anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon on the Chinese Internet. Still, the Israel-Hamas war that broke out last year caused a surge in the number and spread of such false information. For the Chinese government, the content of these conspiracy theories helps Beijing promote its anti-American and anti-Western narrative.

Chinese trolls spread anti-Semitic narratives on platform X

The investigation by Voice of America and Democracy Lab found 32 anti-Semitic posts on X by spam accounts. These posts claim or imply that major government agencies, including the U.S. Congress and the White House, have been controlled by Jews or the Israeli government.

One such post posted a picture of 18 Jewish U.S. government officials, showing Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, among others.

“Jews only make up 2% of the U.S. population, so why do they have so many representatives in important government departments?” the post asked.

Another post posted photos of former U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump each meeting with members of the Orthodox Jewish organization Chabad Lubavitch in the Oval Office of the White House, implying that this was evidence that Jews controlled the U.S. president.

“What are these Jews doing in the White House?” the post asked.

The meetings took place on Education and Sharing Day, an annual holiday set up by Congress in honor of Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Other anti-Semitic posts portrayed the presidential candidates as either Jewish or as followers of the Israeli government.

In one image, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate and former President Trump have their tongues entwined under an Israeli flag, with accompanying text that reads, “In fact, no matter which of them gets power, they will not change their attitude toward Judaism.”

More than 20 of the more than 30 anti-Semitic posts found by VOA and Democracy Lab were posted in July and August this year, and they have received more than 160,000 views, nearly 1,500 likes, and more than 800 reposts.

The three accounts come from three different “junk disguise” networks, and they are the main disseminators within their respective networks. Other accounts within the network help expand the influence of this false information by forwarding their content. There are at least 140 accounts in these three networks.

In addition to spreading anti-Semitic remarks, these accounts often defend Beijing with narratives from Chinese official media on issues such as the South China Sea, human rights issues in Xinjiang, the Ukrainian war, and the attack on the United States.

However, the content posted and forwarded by these accounts has not yet gained a relatively large influence and reach on X.

Jasper Hewitt, an analyst at the Digital Intelligence Group of the Taiwan Democracy Lab, told VOA that the vast majority of these posts failed to attract forwarding by real users.

Tuvia Gering, a senior researcher on China policy at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, believes that the Chinese government may not be hostile to Jews, but the spread of anti-Semitic remarks and false information is conducive to Beijing’s anti-Western actions.

He explained to VOA that there are historical precedents for this. “You can trace it back to the Cold War when the Soviet Union also promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories around the world to incite Western society,” he told VOA, “because it can divide them from within and undermine the image of the West in strategic competition, which is the same as what you see here (in China).”

US intelligence officials have repeatedly warned that China is trying to influence this year’s US presidential election. China has denied such allegations.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference on July 30: “China has never and will not interfere in the US election. We oppose the US spreading false information to discredit China and oppose the US election using China as an issue.”

Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have long been flooding Chinese social media

Conspiracy theories similar to those spread by these X-linked water army accounts have long existed in large numbers on the Chinese Internet. These theories all claim that the US government and even every aspect of society is secretly controlled by Jewish elite groups.

In May of this year, an article that received thousands of likes and reposts on WeChat accused Jews of secretly taking over Washington. “Jewish capital relied on infiltration, marriage, political donations, and group lobbying to finally control the American political arena,” the article wrote.

Like the content posted by the Water Army account on X, the article also identified the Jewish identity of many senior US officials as evidence that the United States is controlled by Jewish elites. “The wife of the US president is Jewish, the son-in-law of the US president is Jewish, the mother of the former US president is Jewish, the US Secretary of State is Jewish, the US Secretary of the Treasury is Jewish, the Deputy Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the National Security Advisor, the Deputy Director of the CIA, the Director of National Intelligence… are all Jewish,” the article said.

In May this year, a bill aimed at combating anti-Semitism in the field of education was passed by the US House of Representatives with an overwhelming vote of 320 to 91. The Antisemitism Awareness Act requires the US Department of Education to consider the standards provided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance when investigating whether an educational program contains anti-Semitism.

The standard defines anti-Semitism as helping or calling for the killing of Jews, accusing all Jews of being responsible for the wrongdoings of individual Jews, denying the Holocaust against Jews by Nazi Germany, comparing the current policies of the Israeli government with those of the Nazis, and demanding that Jews be held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, etc. The Senate has not yet voted on the bill.

On Chinese social media, some bloggers have used the bill, which is still a long way from becoming a real law, as evidence of the “destruction of the United States.”

A video on the video-sharing website Bilibili, which has received nearly 1 million views and more than 6,000 comments, said that the bill has turned the United States into a “complete Jewish colony.” The video falsely claimed that the bill “legally clearly stipulates the supreme and unquestionable status of Jews in the United States and strictly prohibits any American from being ‘anti-Semitic’, otherwise they will be arrested according to law.”

The video also falsely claimed that according to the definition of the bill, the New Testament of the Bible will become a banned book, and “anyone who reads it will be guilty of a crime.” And because every US president has taken the oath of office with his hand on the Bible, the president is no longer legitimate. “If the president is not legitimate, will the separation of powers not be shaken? If the separation of powers is shaken, what legitimacy does the existence of the United States have?” the video said.

Using conspiracy theories to defend Beijing’s rule

Many accusations against Jews on the Chinese Internet say that they are trying to control China like they control the United States. A WeChat article that received more than 6,000 likes said that the American elite group controlled by Jews is hoping to exert its influence in China because “China is the only country with wealth that can satisfy the United States’ bloodsucking.”

Another WeChat article that received more than 4,500 likes and was forwarded more than 15,000 times said that the Western media controlled by Jews tried to promote concepts such as capital freedom through Chinese public intellectuals to undermine the Chinese government’s control over the national economy, thereby opening the door for Jewish capital groups to control China.

The article said that the reason why China is not controlled by Jews like Western countries is because China has tight control over various aspects, such as national media and culture. “The national public opinion machine is under the control of the state, and everything operates for the national interest, not for the interests of capital and consortiums,” the article said, “because, in China, socialist public ownership is the main body and controls the core assets of the country. Capital has no say here.”

Anti-Semitic speech is almost unmanaged

The Chinese and Jews do not have a long history of contradictions, and the hostility between the two nations has never been high. A 2014 poll by the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. group that fights anti-Semitism, showed that only 20% of respondents in China held anti-Semitic views.

But after Hamas attacked Israeli civilians on October 7 last year, which led to Israel’s counterattack, there was an overwhelming condemnation of Israel on the Chinese Internet, and even a fan circle supporting Hamas appeared. This sentiment soon evolved into an attack on Jews. The classic anti-war film “Schindler’s List” was once given low scores by a large number of netizens on the Chinese Internet.

Many netizens left messages expressing their understanding of the massacre of Jews by Nazi Germany’s head of state, Adolf Hitler. The Chinese government tried to distance itself from anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on the Internet, which it strictly controls.

On October 30 last year, after anti-Semitism on the Internet in China was reported by many Western media, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press conference: “Chinese law clearly stipulates that it is prohibited to use the Internet to spread information such as extremism, ethnic hatred, discrimination, and violence.”

However, the spread of conspiracy theories about Jews has not stopped. Liu Lipeng, editor of China Digital Times, which documents China’s Internet censorship, told VOA that anti-Semitic speech remains almost unregulated on Chinese social media. He said that every time Israel appears in the news, it will trigger a new wave of anti-Semitic speech online. In mid-September, the pagers of several members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah suddenly exploded, killing dozens of people.

The Israeli government, which is reportedly believed to have launched the attack, refused to admit responsibility for the incident. The news once again triggered attacks and curses on Jews on Chinese social media. “Israel has done everything to achieve its goal of destroying its opponents, proving that the Jews are the most terrifying and bloodless nation,” wrote a user on Weibo. “They are self-centered and think they are the best.

In fact, in the eyes of most countries in the world, Jews are the most despicable and shameless. Blood debts must be paid with blood, as long as the time is right!”