Disinformation can't cover up US' culpability: China Daily editorial

Since the conflict in Ukraine broke out, some US politicians and media have ceaselessly waged a campaign of disinformation against China. One of the most persistent being China is willing to supply Russia with weapons, according to US intelligence officials.

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang categorically refuted this claim in an interview with CBS News on Monday, stating "The allegation that China provides military assistance to Russia is false information, and we oppose it."

But such a claim is nothing new for the US, which 19 years ago invaded Iraq based on a test tube of washing powder. Contrary to its later claim that it was an "intelligence failure" that led to the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, it was instead an extremely successful disinformation campaign orchestrated by the CIA that paved the way for the US to use military force to secure Washington's desired regime change in that country.

Despite the allegations being made by the US, China is not supplying weapons and ammunition to either side in the Ukraine conflict. What it has delivered to Ukraine is three batches of emergency humanitarian assistance. This includes food, sleeping bags, infant formula, cotton quilts, and waterproof mats. On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that the country will provide another 10 million yuan ($1.57 million) worth of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

In fact, it is the US and other NATO members which are weaponizing the crisis by supplying Ukraine with billions of dollars of weapons. On Friday, for instance, the Joe Biden administration announced an additional $800 million weapons package to assist Ukraine's fight against Russia.

By making Ukraine their proxy in their confrontation with Russia, the US and its allies are escalating the conflict in Ukraine and worsening the humanitarian disaster that is unfolding.

NATO, as a military bloc, should have disbanded after the Cold War. Instead, it continued to expand eastward and gradually eroded Russia's security environment and tilted the strategic equilibrium in Eastern Europe. Since 2014, the US has provided Ukraine with billions of dollars of military aid, and NATO has staged multiple large-scale war games there.

The CIA's "judgments" that led to the invasion of Iraq were not the result of a failure within the US intelligence community to correctly analyze and assess the evidence, as was later claimed, but rather a systematic and successful effort of disinformation in order to generate support for military action. The policy was not based on the facts, rather a story was fabricated to justify the policy.

This is a tried-and-tested tactic that the US never tires of. But it is the Ukrainian people who are today paying the price for the tall tales spun by Washington.

Instead of spreading disinformation, the US should do some soul-searching and join peace-loving people around the world to address the root cause of the Ukraine crisis.