'Empire of lies': China slams US over State Department report

The Chinese Foreign Ministry declared on Saturday that the United States is the real “empire of lies,” slamming a State Department report that claimed Beijing invests billions of dollars each year in efforts to manipulate information. According to a report released on Thursday by the U.S. State Department, China is attempting to influence international media through censorship, data collection, and covert purchases of foreign news organisations. The study, which was created in response to a congressional directive to describe state information manipulation, said that Beijing had experienced “major setbacks” when targeting democratic countries despite the extraordinary resources allocated to the effort. This was because of opposition from local media and civil society, it said. The report ignored facts and contained erroneous information, according to a statement from China’s foreign ministry. The agencies of the U.S. State Department that produced the report “were the source of false information and the command post of ‘cognitive warfare’,” the Chinese ministry said. “Facts have repeatedly proven that the United States is the true ’empire of lies’,” it added. The U.S. report is released at a time of controversy over China’s initiatives in recent years to expand the reach of its government-controlled media internationally. Beijing wants to fight the unfavourable perceptions of China that it believes are being spread by international media. (With agency inputs)