Surprise, surprise. The President of the US has announced that China has been interfering in the midterm elections. He didn't give any details, but this was not the first time there have been rumors of what the Chinese had been up to. The President had claimed that China was a bigger threat than Russia, o this fits with those comments. He claims that China is trying to interfere because he is the first US President to challenge China on its trade practices. In my second edition to the Chinese Information War I described some of the ways the Chinese had been burrowing into the local government campaigns, hoping to back people that would move up in their political ambitions. They are growing allies from inside the US and can apply those to unseating candidates they don't like.
As it turns out, the President may have been referring to ads placed in Iowa newspapers with China's side of the trade story given out as China Watch News, published in many places and not just Iowa. It is not news, and it is not, as the title suggests, watching China. It is straight propaganda. The Russians do the same thing with Russia Today, still being published in the US. The fact that it is done with the cooperation of local newspapers is interesting. All they see is profits from advertising and should be treated accordingly by the audience of people who read them. They must need the money.
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