Since the incursion of 19 Russian drones into Polish airspace on September 10, international attention has turned to how Poland and NATO would respond. 

In China, some social media posts quickly and inaccurately claimed that Poland was about to become the first European country to officially deploy troops to neighboring Ukraine. Where did this narrative originate, and why did it spread? DW Fact check takes a look. 

Claim: DW identified several videos on the Chinese social media platform Haokanspreading false news that Poland had sent troops to Ukraine. The Chinese online outlet Hot Newsreported: "In the early morning of September 12, Poland suddenly released blockbuster news. Poland officially announced that it would send troops to Ukraine." 

DW Fact check: False

The article, under the headline shown above, cited Russian state news agency TASS, claiming that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had "explicitly stated his willingness to accept [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy's proposal to send troops to Ukraine" and spoke of a "landmark event” as Poland became "the first NATO country to publicly announce its intention to send troops to Ukraine."

Similar reports appeared in video form on the Chinese social network Weibo, with one video garnering over 20,000 views before being deleted this week. Another video claimed the "conflict escalated" as "Poland announced that it would send troops to Ukraine."

 

Where did the reports come from? 

The reports appear to stem from comments made by Zelenskyy at a press conference in Kyiv on September 11. He stated that Ukraine stood ready to advise and assist Poland on drone defense and implied that Prime Minister Tusk had agreed to send military representatives to Ukraine for this purpose. 

"I don't think anyone has such [effective anti-drone air defense] systems today. Only we have it — and the Russians," were Zelenskyy's exact words. "We are ready and open [to help Poland]. Donald [Tusk] said that he will send his military. I have put them in touch with the Defense Minister and [Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr] Syrskyi."

Reuters also reported that Zelenskyy said Tusk had "already agreed to send military representatives to Ukraine on the issue."

However, Zelenskyy’s remarks appear to have been unclearly formulated, since the Polish Ministry of Defense clarified the following day that while "drone training sessions and cooperation between experts from Poland and Ukraine" were planned, "all these activities will take place on the territory of Poland."

Despite this clarification, articles and videos in Chinese media continued to misrepresent Zelenskyy's original remarks. These claims were often paired with genuine reports of 40,000 Polish troops being stationed near the Belarusian border during the "Zapad-25" drills.

One misleading headline read: "A country announced that it would send troops to Ukraine and also sent 40,000 troops to Russia's doorstep."

Emotionally charged themes and sensationalist headlines

Hot News is a Chinese website that heavily relies on so-called content farms to produce news. Its homepage is filled with sensationalist headlines such as "Philippine Coast Guard vessels ramming Chinese ships" or "NATO has effectively entered the war."

"This sort of content usually focuses on emotionally charged themes meant to provoke viewers, but the stories are often completely fabricated, with even the characters being made up," says Charles Yeh, editor-in-chief of Taiwanese fact-checking group MyGoPen. He explains that content farms often publish fake videos and reuse scripts across different accounts and platforms.

Indeed, the same headlines appeared on other Chinese websites, including china.com, and slightly modified versions were posted on Bilibili, a Chinese video-sharing website.

By September 18, some content had evolved to include headlines such as: "10 countries in Europe sent troops to Ukraine," and "Putin's mansion set on fire, 26 nations deploy troops to Ukraine."

Yeh adds: "When certain videos are removed, the channel often changes its name and profile picture." 

How China is sowing 'informational chaos' 

The content farms producing this material are part of a complex Chinese media ecosystem under government control.

"The authorities hire citizens with certain accounts or companies which operate content farms to produce certain campaigns and push certain narratives which they couldn't push via official channels and institutions," explains Marcin Przychodniak, a China analyst from The Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM). 

"If these narratives [regarding Poland, Ukraine and Russia] are still accessible online, it suggests that they are at least being tolerated by the authorities," he adds. "This is politically convenient for China."

Shared narratives between China and Russia

"The general goal is to destabilize and create informational chaos, with contradictory, controversial statements which make it hard to define what is true and what's not," says Przychodniak.

Since signing a bilateral pactin July 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping have have agreed to cooperate on information narratives.

"[Russia and China] share some narratives and sometimes imitate lines of thinking on NATO and the European Union," Przychodniak notes. One example is the portrayal of NATO as an aggressive, expansionist force encroaching on Russia’s sphere of influence.

Who is the target audience of China's disinformation?

According to Przychodniak, the strategy is not particularly effective in the West, where audiences can generally recognize obvious disinformation.

Instead, the disinformation may be aimed at a different audience: "For those distributing and spreading the messages, such as diplomats, mid-to-low-level officials or content farm operators, the main recipients are probably higher-ranking officials in the Chinese Communist Party, who need to see that the job was carried out, that the message was delivered, that the directive from above was accomplished."

Dmytro Hubenko contributed to this Fact check.

Edited by: Ines Eisele, Rachel Baig