US true expert on playing with disinformation: spokesperson

BEIJING -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Friday said the United States is a true expert on playing with disinformation as it is accustomed to using the public opinion machine and its hegemony of narrative to distort facts, cover up its egregious acts and evade accountability.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks when asked to comment on relevant remarks on disinformation of a US official at the 50th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.

"Speaking of disinformation, that US official must have quite a lot of experience, for the United States is a true expert on playing with disinformation. The United States is accustomed to using the public opinion machine and its hegemony of narrative to distort facts, cover up its egregious acts and evade accountability," Zhao told a daily news briefing.

Zhao said that the Iraq War is a case in point. With a false claim backed by a vial of white powder, or what some describe as "washing powder," the United States waged the Iraq War, which lasted eight long years and killed more than 200,000 civilians.

By monopolizing the source of information, the United States sought to convince the world that its military operation there was "clean" and "responsible," Zhao added.

Zhao said that in 2009, then Associated Press CEO Tom Curley criticized the US administration, saying that it turned the US military into a global propaganda machine. A high-ranking US military official even threatened to do away with Curley and AP if they continued to follow the principles of journalism.

"In order to hide the atrocities it committed during the war from the world, the US military invented a whole set of narratives, which calls civilian casualties 'collateral damage', murders 'key operations', extorting confessions by torture 'enhanced interrogation techniques' and killing civilians 'wasting the enemy'," Zhao said.

Noting the United States also suppressed targeted media outlets to manipulate the narrative of wars, Zhao said that in the Kosovo War, the US-led NATO bombed the Radio Television of Serbia headquarters in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and killed dozens of media practitioners and civilians in order to stop the country's media from reporting what truly happened there to the rest of the world.

In March this year, people in Serbia unfurled huge banners carrying the names of victim countries and regions of wars launched by the United States and NATO at a Europa League match. "It was a scene to behold, yet it received very little media coverage in the United States," Zhao added.

"Nothing can change the truth. A lie will always be a lie. The United States may present itself as an advocate for justice or a superhero trying to save the world using whatever kind of narratives it comes up with and glosses itself over, and still nothing can hide its hypocrisy, hegemony and double standard on justice. We believe more and more people will find out about what the United States is truly like," Zhao said.