China's Communist government is systematically deploying artificial intelligence and social media platforms to spread state-approved messaging globally, including coordinated campaigns that mock the United States and its president. This represents a significant escalation in what State Department officials characterize as a direct threat to American national security and interests.
The strategy marks a dramatic shift from Beijing's historically ineffective propaganda approach. Where Chinese state media once relied on dull, slogan-filled speeches and hollow rhetoric, the government now employs sophisticated AI-generated animations, music videos, and digitally native content designed to resonate with younger audiences worldwide. Recent cables from the State Department have warned that foreign messaging campaigns carried on digital platforms by foreign state-controlled media "pose a direct threat to U.S. national security and fuel hostility toward American interests."
AI-Generated Propaganda Goes Viral
A five-minute AI-generated animation released by state broadcaster China Central Television exemplifies this new approach. The video frames the Iran war as an allegory in which a white eagle in regal attire representing the U.S. unleashes an evil laugh before attacking Persian cats draped in black cloaks standing for Iranians. The short went viral domestically and drew rave reviews from Chinese audiences for translating complex geopolitical conflict into easily digestible content. After an X user subtitled and posted the clip online, it accumulated more than 1 million views in only a few days.
This represents part of a broader pattern. In February, Xinhua News Agency released an AI-generated music video lampooning the U.S. threat to take over Greenland, featuring a bald eagle character in military uniform singing "Anything I want, I'll get it. One way or another, I'll get it." In March, after Trump convened the "Shield of the Americas" summit, Xinhua posted another short video depicting a bald eagle caging small birds in the name of security, with the character stating, "Sometimes, security comes with a little control."
Andrew Chubb, a senior lecturer in the School of Global Affairs at Lancaster University whose studies include political propaganda, observed that the content operates in a gray zone: "It's hardly even like propaganda — it almost seems more just a historical fiction dramatization of the situation."
Institutional Strategy and Resource Commitment
China's messaging campaign reflects years of direction from President Xi Jinping to boost the country's ability to spread its messages globally, gain greater influence on world affairs, and counter what Beijing perceives as biased Western narratives about China. The government has directed substantial resources into this effort, building a massive "matrix" of social media accounts managed by diplomats, state media, influencers, and bots across various platforms, including X and Facebook.
Shi Anbin, professor and director of Israel Epstein Center for Global Media and Communications at Tsinghua University, explained the strategic intent: "It is a new way for Chinese mainstream media to engage global Gen Z audience and social media users to understand Chinese standpoint and viewpoint of international affairs." He noted that AI-generated "infotainment" spread via social media is likely more effective in persuading younger audiences worldwide to accept Chinese viewpoints and is becoming routine in the country's messaging strategy.
Wang Zichen, deputy secretary-general for the Beijing-based think tank Center for China & Globalization, confirmed that state media are actively experimenting with nontraditional formats. "Whatever one thinks about the format, the message itself clearly resonates with increasingly larger audiences, which helps explain why such content gains traction online," Wang said.
Evolution of State Messaging
The shift toward AI-generated entertainment reflects a broader recognition within Beijing that traditional propaganda no longer works. The article noted that China's messaging was once characterized by party newspapers carrying slogan-filled, hollow-sounding speeches lauding the country's merits while denouncing Western influence. Students and junior officials complained of dry study materials required to pass exams on party history and ideology.
As young people turned away from stiff party language, Beijing adapted. The government no longer frowns upon impish web language but embraces it to retell party history. It has turned to rap music to extol the party's feats, recruited pop singers and actors to star in patriotic films, and produced anti-corruption television series with intriguing plots and superb acting that have become hits with audiences.
Progressively, state media have experimented with short-form, digitally native content using AI technology to reach global audiences more effectively than traditional broadcasting methods.
Why This Matters:
China's systematic deployment of AI-generated propaganda represents a significant challenge to American information dominance and national security interests. The State Department has explicitly identified foreign state-controlled messaging campaigns as posing a direct threat to U.S. security and American interests. The effectiveness of these campaigns—particularly in reaching younger, digitally native audiences—suggests that traditional American counter-messaging approaches may prove inadequate. The coordination of this effort across government agencies, state media, diplomats, and social media accounts indicates a sustained, well-resourced strategy designed to undermine American credibility and influence globally. The fact that pro-Iran groups are similarly employing AI-generated content to taunt the U.S. suggests this represents part of a broader anti-American information ecosystem. American policymakers must contend with an increasingly sophisticated information environment in which AI-generated content blurs the line between entertainment and propaganda, making detection and counter-messaging more difficult. The U.S. has indicated it is committed to countering such campaigns and pushing back on worldviews against American interests, but the resource disparity and technological sophistication of China's approach present substantial challenges to maintaining American influence in the global information space.