Washington Is Helping Beijing “Tell China’s Story Well”
Beijing has for decades invested significant resources into manipulating Western public opinion, but 2025 marks a significant change. This is not because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) created a radically new playbook, but because Washington is paving the way for its efforts. As the United States abandons its role in international broadcasting and dismantles the institutions previously at the core of countering CCP propaganda, and as some in the administration even repeat Russian and Chinese talking points, China feels emboldened in promoting AI-backed disinformation campaigns, paid influencer schemes, and divisive narratives. All of this comes at a time when the Western alliance system is already strained as a result of uncertainty about US commitment. China’s amplification of its propaganda is sowing fresh discord at the core of the alliance system.
China’s Newfound Influence in the West
Tasked by Xi Jinping with “telling China’s story well” over a decade ago, Chinese official media, through CGTN, Xinhua, and a plethora of local partner outlets, have accelerated their investment and reach with content tailored to specific Western audiences. Increasingly, they are doing so by leveraging AI to rapidly deploy wedge narratives and target them with precision. Chinese technology and security services use advanced AI to monitor, analyze, and segment US and EU public discourse through tailored narratives and their catalog of influencers. In the first half of 2025, OpenAI disrupted four separate Chinese operations by using ChatGPT to generate bespoke English-language social media content. This content targeted American audiences on social media platforms, stoking controversial debates about foreign aid and the CCP. In September, China’s military parade showcased its new Information Operations Group, featuring AI-integrated digital intelligence-enabling vehicles designed for real-time information warfare. This signaled Beijing’s further commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology into its propaganda capabilities.
China’s priorities go beyond positive publicity, as documented in the 3rd European External Action Service (EEAS) Report. An increasing proportion of Chinese and joint Sino-Russian operations have explicitly aimed to amplify differences over Ukraine, trade, digital sovereignty, and transatlantic leadership. Multilingual campaigns target both populations and policymakers, often exploiting existing social divides to paralyze or undermine collective international response.
Taiwan as a Warning
Yet, when targeting Western countries, China continues to operate below the threshold of its capabilities, especially when compared to its information operations within Taiwan. Beijing’s campaign against Taiwan during its 2024 presidential election offers the clearest picture of what a focused Western information push operation could look like. AI-generated deepfake attacks, rumor flooding, and the spread of wedge content undermined social trust, increased voter confusion, and fractured local consensus. While not all of the strategies are new, the refinement and mass amplification through generative AI points to the risk Western societies face if China chooses to devote its full capabilities to similar campaigns in the United States or Europe during a time of Western retreat.
The United States is Dismantling Its Defenses in the Information Space
Funding freezes, mass layoffs, and program eliminations at US international broadcasters such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia eliminated an important source of independent journalism globally. Additionally, the US has broken down its counter-disinformation infrastructure with the shuttering of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center in late 2024 and the closure of its successor organization, the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub in April 2025. Other organizations, such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its partners, continue to face the threat of defunding by Congress, weakening programs that build resilience against malign influence. What made these actions particularly harmful was that the recently dismantled Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) justified its dismantling of US organizations such as USAID and NED by parroting key Russian and Chinese talking points, falsely accusing the organizations of promoting “regime change” abroad.
Besides dismantling its own organizations, the Trump administration is undermining European legislation aimed at countering information manipulation. In August, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a directive to US diplomats to lobby against the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). While the administration claims that the DSA undermines US users’ free speech, most of the DSA, which has opened investigations into both Chinese and US tech companies, is concerned with enforcing basic transparency from social media platforms about their policies. In fact, in October 2025, the EU Commission found that Meta offers users insufficient means to challenge content moderation decisions. The United States even considered sanctioning EU and member-state officials implementing the DSA. Following US President Donald Trump’s meeting with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July, the EU Commission delayed and weakened the AI Act’s implementation until at least 2027, removing requirements for high-risk AI practices, including transparency for synthetic content, critical tools to identify AI-enabled disinformation. In November, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that the EU must rethink its digital regulations if it wants the United States to reduce tariffs on steel and aluminum.
US Politics with Chinese Characteristics
Beyond retreating in the information space, elements within the US government and its affiliates have recently begun echoing Beijing’s narratives in policy directives, public statements, and the adoption of US-based technology.
Influential figures within the administration echo CCP talking points on Taiwan. Elon Musk, a former senior advisor to the president, has repeatedly promoted China’s position on Taiwan as a special administrative zone and repeated positions in line with the One China Principle. Musk’s positions persist in 2025 as he deepens his financial relations with Beijing through Tesla’s factory expansion in Shanghai amid Trump’s trade war. Former acting under-secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs Darren Beattie previously denied the Uyghur genocide in China and even praised Chinese policies. The danger is that Beattie and others have the social following to convince their audience that democratic rule is inferior to the type of governance in China.
Trump’s actions have also become invaluable propaganda material for Beijing. In June 2025, the China Media Project found that the recent immigration crackdown and the deployment of the National Guard have allowed CCP propaganda to reach new heights. For years, the Party has marshaled narratives to support China’s core interests and paint US objectives as harmful. The administration’s dismantling of networks that combat information manipulation and its crackdown on protests have provided fodder for China’s claims of US “fake human rights” and “real hegemony”.
The US turn was reflected most emphatically in the recently released National Security Strategy (NSS), which calls for “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”. In effect, this means working with the same far-right parties across the continent with which China has been cultivating ties for its own ends and which often echo official Chinese talking points. It is therefore no surprise that, while less enthusiastic than Russia’s full endorsement, Beijing’s response to the 2025 NSS was far less critical than toward previous versions.
Washington Doing Beijing’s Work
Despite the sophistication and reach of information campaigns targeting Western countries, China has yet to deploy them fully. Many operations remain exploratory, local in focus, or lacking in lasting traction. What is accelerating the social divide in the West is not just China’s growing investment, but the void left by US disengagement from its allies and the widely shared perception that elements inside the US government are in effect siding with autocracies such as Russia and China. The disregard for established news sources, the neglect of information infrastructure, and the genuine erosion of trust between the United States and its allies all amplify the effects of China’s efforts, resulting in gains far greater than Beijing could have wished for.
The views expressed herein are those solely of the authors. GMF as an institution does not take positions.