The Pentagon is seen on August 27, 2023, in Washington
THE UNITED STATES ran online anti-vaccination campaigns at the height of the Covid pandemic to discredit China, a Reuters investigation has revealed.
The news agency’s probe focuses on the Philippines, where a Pentagon-directed operation from 2020-21 set up fake social media accounts which sowed doubt about the effectiveness of China’s Sinovac vaccine — at the time the only one available there — and other forms of life-saving aid from face masks to test kits.
It identified over 300 accounts matching descriptions shared with it by former US military officials, many deploying the hashtag #Chinaangvirus (“China is the virus” in Tagalog). These gained tens of thousands of followers.
The cancelled China trip of the German Foreign Minister marks a break with Helmut Schmidt’s China policy and drives Germany further into Washington’s confrontation course, warns SEVIM DAGDELEN
From 35,000 troops in Talisman Sabre war games to HMS Spey provocations in the Taiwan Strait, Labour continues Tory militarisation — all while claiming to uphold ‘one China’ diplomatic agreements from 1972, reports KENNY COYLE
