The United States is the true “empire of lies”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday, lashing out at a U.S. State Department report that accused Beijing of plowing billions of dollars annually into information manipulation efforts.
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 comes amid controversy over China’s attempts in recent years to increase the global footprint of its government-controlled media. Beijing is seeking to combat the negative images of China it feels are propagated by global media.
