China spreads MAGA conspiracy theories on faked social media accounts: report

Chinese accounts designed to look like they belong to American supporters of Donald Trump are taking to social media, pushing conspiracy theories and attacking President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 election, according to researchers and government officials.

Echoing disruption campaigns against the U.S. that originated in Russia, China's actions signal a more concerted push to use social media as a way to influence U.S. elections by harnessing partisan divisions, the New York Times reported.

An example of a Chinese X account provided by The Times claims to be operated by “a father, husband and son” who was “MAGA all the way!!” The account mocks Biden's age and shared fake images of him in a prison uniform, even calling him a Satanist and a pedophile.

Speaking to The Times, Institute for Strategic Dialogue senior analyst Elise Thomas said she's never seen anything like what China is doing, and that the effort has attracted user attention much more than previous Chinese disinformation campaigns.

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“The worry has always been, what if one day they wake up and are effective?” Thomas said. “Potentially, this could be the beginning of them waking up and being effective.”

Previous efforts from China to push its ideology in the West were unsuccessful, but the more recent one seeks to exploit divisions already present in American politics, such as the debate over LGBTQ rights, immigration and crime.

Disinformation analyst Margot Fulde-Hardy says China is building an army of accounts to unleash across multiple platforms in November.

“This is reminiscent of Russia’s style of operations, but the difference is more the intensity of this operation,” Fulde-Hardy told The Times.

“What we’re seeing,” said Max Lesser, a senior analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “is the campaign just continues, undeterred.”