Beijing Uses Fake Western News Sites to Attack Falun Gong, Report Finds

Dozens of websites linked to Chinese companies have been used to push Beijing’s propaganda overseas while pretending to be legacy Western outlets, according to a report by Graphika, which specializes in research into foreign influence.

The websites copied design elements in order to fraudulently present themselves as such outlets as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and others. Aside from commercial and pro-China content, they also ran articles attacking Falun Gong, a faith group brutally persecuted by the regime of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the report said.

“We identified evidence that these companies and/or individuals leveraged these domains in contracts to promote the activities undertaken by [CCP-linked] entities,” the report said.