State Department cables warn that foreign state-controlled media campaigns, leveraging social media and artificial intelligence, pose a direct threat to U.S. national security and fuel hostility toward American interests, as China intensifies its global information war.
China’s Communist government is actively employing social media platforms and artificial intelligence to disseminate its narrative, frequently mocking the United States and its president, after having established tight censorship over the internet within its own borders.
An AI-generated animation, five minutes in length and styled after classic martial arts films, was utilized by China’s state media to present an allegory for the ongoing war in Iran. This animation depicted a white eagle in regal attire, representing the U.S., unleashing an "evil laugh" before its army attacked a group of Persian cats, draped in black cloaks and standing in for Iranians, who then vowed to fight after losing their leader and closing off a crucial trading route.
This metaphor-rich short is one of several AI-generated animations created by China’s state media in recent months, all designed to portray the U.S. as a global bully, including references to President Donald Trump’s past threat to take over Greenland and his strategy to assert U.S. predominance in the Western Hemisphere.
The deployment of AI animation aligns with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s long-standing push to enhance the country’s capacity to spread its messages globally, secure a greater influence in world affairs, and counteract Western narratives that Beijing frequently perceives as biased or derogatory towards China.
The Cultural Offensive
Parallel to this, pro-Iran groups have also utilized sleek, AI-generated memes to taunt the U.S. and President Trump, indicating a broader trend in digital warfare. This escalating digital conflict is part of an intensifying global information war, in which the U.S. government has declared its intention to "up its game" to counter foreign anti-American messaging and push back against worldviews that oppose America’s interests.
Shi Anbin, a professor and director at the Israel Epstein Center for Global Media and Communications at Tsinghua University, stated that AI-generated "infotainment" distributed via social media is likely more effective in persuading younger audiences worldwide to adopt Chinese viewpoints and is becoming a routine element in China’s messaging strategy. Shi Anbin further elaborated that "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."
The short animation concerning the Iran war was released by the state broadcaster China Central Television on social media, quickly went viral within China, and garnered "rave reviews" from its Chinese audience for simplifying a complex geopolitical conflict. The animation reached the English-language world after an X user subtitled and posted the clip online, accumulating over 1 million views in just a few days. Andrew Chubb, a senior lecturer in the School of Global Affairs at Lancaster University, whose research includes political propaganda, commented that the content is "hardly even like propaganda — it almost seems more just a historical fiction dramatization of the situation."
Globalist Platforms as Conduits
Historically, China’s messaging was characterized as dull, with party newspapers publishing slogan-filled, hollow-sounding speeches that praised the country’s merits while simultaneously denouncing Western influence. Students and junior officials previously complained about the dry study materials they were mandated to learn for exams on party history and ideology, indicating a disconnect with younger generations.
As young people increasingly disengaged from rigid party language, Beijing initiated a shift, now embracing "impish web language" to retell party history and incorporating rap music to extol the party’s achievements. The regime now recruits pop singers and actors to star in patriotic films, relying on their popular appeal rather than mandates or free tickets to attract young people to movie theaters. Even anti-corruption television series have achieved success with "intriguing plots, punchy lines and superb acting," demonstrating the regime's adaptation to modern entertainment formats.
The Narrative War Escalates
Wang Zichen, deputy secretary-general for the Beijing-based think tank Center for China & Globalization, observed that state media are experimenting with nontraditional formats, including short-form, digitally native content utilizing AI. Wang Zichen added that "Whatever one thinks about the format, the message itself clearly resonates with increasingly larger audiences, which helps explain why such content gains traction online."
China has allocated significant resources to promote a narrative targeting a global audience, with the party constructing a "massive 'matrix' of social media accounts" managed by diplomats, state media, influencers, and even bots across various platforms, including X and Facebook. About 2 months ago, the official 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." About 1 month ago, following President Trump’s convening of the "Shield of the Americas" summit, Xinhua posted a short video depicting a bald eagle caging small birds in the name of security, with the suited bald eagle stating, "Sometimes, security comes with a little control."