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Chinese Diplomats in Africa Are Increasingly Using Their Twitter Accounts to Amplify Anti-U.S. Propaganda

by Eric Olander

Ambassador Chen Xiaodong in Pretoria is among China’s most senior and high-profile diplomats in Africa. Like many of his peers across the continent, he’s turning to Twitter to relay anti-U.S. propaganda produced by Chinese state media.

On Tuesday, Ambassador Chen picked up on the “#FortDetrick” meme that Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian sparked last month, when he called on the World Health Organization to investigate the Chinese-led allegation that the U.S. military’s biomedical facility in Maryland, not Wuhan, is the true origin of COVID-19.

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