How the US uses the conflict to smear China

Stories about China considering providing "lethal support" to Russia dominated Western media headlines on Feb 19. But China Daily's Media Unlocked team has found that Western media rely on anonymous sources, echo chambers and double standards to make unsubstantiated claims to smear China.

At least 46 stories on the topic appeared on Feb 19, repeating the claim from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken without providing evidence. The number almost doubled from the previous day.

On the same day at the annual Munich Security Conference, US Vice-President Kamala Harris warned China against supporting Russia. Parroting the same talking points, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, said in an interview that China would "cross a red line" if it provided military support to Russia. The media reported the same claim by different people without providing evidence.

These reports always started with a government leak. The day before the news broke, CNN, in another story, cited an anonymous source saying that China would step up military aid for Russia. In January, the news channel quoted an anonymous source from the Joe Biden administration who suggested that Chinese companies had been providing nonlethal support to Russia in the conflict. The narrative now goes that the assistance is coming from the Chinese government.

The Western media has also demonstrated a double standard in the conflict. Two weeks after the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported the US was responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines in September, few stories relating to the incident appeared in mainstream Western media.

The millions of dollars in new defense spending from the Pentagon has helped further expand and line the pockets of weapons manufacturers.

Biased reporting on the conflict, and the campaigns that portray China as a perpetrator, have not helped end the conflict. These reports instead have helped push the conflict along and prolong it in ways that have only cost lives in Europe and sent money to the bank accounts of US weapons makers.