The Chinese never miss a chance to put their own message on any opinion that differs from their own, no matter how small it may seem. As Josh Chin wrote last week, China has criticized a report on the Chinese military and the aggressiveness they have shown outside of China. The Defense Minister immediately issued a statement saying they were just taking care of the defense of their country, without mentioning that the borders also included portions of the world they do not own and are claimed by other countries. There is a false and misleading logic that goes with this, characterized many years ago by the Russians- What's mine is mine, and what's yours is negotiable.
In some respects, the Chinese are winning this war of words by overwhelming the Internet with statements of their own that carry their narrative that the East and South China Sea are theirs, thus anything done to protect their land and the territorial waters around it is acceptable. Of course, the logic is faulty if you believe they do not own the South China Sea. We don't.
So, we need a more aggressive stance against their words. Beefing up the Voice of America is a start, but it is going to have to ramp up fast and grow quickly to have any affect. In the meantime, the Chinese will be hacking whoever they can to stop VOA from getting its message out. You can bet they have already started. They never miss a chance to manage information.
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