China’s Outlawed Cult Launched an Infowar Attack Against the New Multipolar Trilateral

The “Epoch Times”, a media outlet run by members of China’s outlawed Falun Gong regime change cult, launched an infowar attack against the new Multipolar Trilateral after it deliberately misrepresented a passage in a recently published book about Pakistan released by Russian scholars in an attempt to drive a wedge between those two Great Powers and China, with their information provocation taking on a heightened importance after Saudi Arabia’s popular Arab News website republished a link to the cult’s article and inadvertently bestowed “credibility” to its misleading headlined claim and weaponized innuendo.

Strategic Context

The new Multipolar Trilateral between Russia, the global pivot state of Pakistan, and China has the potential to revolutionize Eastern Hemispheric affairs and is slated to solidify sooner than expected after the Indian establishment made several infowar attacks against each of its members as part of its ongoing efforts to help the incumbent BJP’s re-election campaign. India and its American patron obviously have an interest in preventing the comprehensive integration of these three Great Powers, but their efforts have hitherto been largely unsuccessful and even counterproductive. That said, the latest attempt by another of America’s proxies — the anti-Chinese Falun Gong regime change cult that’s banned by Beijing — is a lot more devious than anything that’s come before it and has already achieved what other infowar attacks haven’t, which is a degree of international “credibility” to its purposely divisive claim and weaponized innuendo.

The Facts…

The “Epoch Times”, a US-based Falun Gong-run media outlet, published a misleadingly headlined piece a few days ago titled “Russia Competes With China for Arms Sales to Pakistan“, which translated part of RIA Novosti’s report on the recently released book “Pakistan: Beyond Stereotypes” that was just published by the influential Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) think tank. The publicly financed Russian company picked up on an important passage in the book by Deputy Director Konstantin Makienko who pointed out that Russia has the possibility of selling upwards of $9 billion worth of military equipment to Pakistan, noting that there’s little competition in this hitherto Chinese-dominated market so it’s entirely possible that Moscow can secure very favorable terms on any forthcoming contracts with Islamabad. To the “Epoch Times’” credit, they accurately reported on this and even included some additional facts of relevance in their piece to advance their argument that Russia and China do indeed compete in various arms markets across the world.

 …And The Fiction

The problem, however, is the headline’s deliberate misportrayal of Makienko’s remarks as suggesting that Russia and China are competing for arms sales to Pakistan. This falsely implies that the larger Russian-Pakistani Strategic Partnership in which any forthcoming military sales would be a part is predicated on zero-sum motivations vis-a-vis China instead of the win-win ones that they really are through the new Multipolar Trilateral. It’s true that this specific bilateral component of that larger trilateral structure could indeed be leveraged by each of those two parties in order to strike a better “balance” in their ties with China, though that would be due to friendly competition with a view to strengthening the new Multipolar Trilateral and not the unfriendly one that could undermine it like the “Epoch Times” strongly suggests in its provocative headline that’s intended to mislead impressionable members of its audience.

Arab News’ Inadvertent Amplification

This particular infowar attack against the new Multipolar Trilateral wouldn’t be worthy of a response had its weaponized message not been greatly amplified by Saudi Arabia’s popular Arab News online outlet after the website republished the “Epoch Times’” piece and therefore inadvertently bestowed “credibility” to its headlined claim. It’s highly doubtful that the Arab News’ editors meant any ill will against their country’s Chinese and Russian strategic partners by doing so, let alone that they had any idea that the “Epoch Times” is run by a regime change cult banned by Beijing, but the unavoidable fact remains that their republication of that article imbued it with a sense of “credibility” and could bring it to the attention of an even wider audience, which could be inestimably massive if other sites then republish it as well and further proliferate its weaponized message in a manner that the “Epoch Times” could never have expected.

The Infowar Ecosystem

That’s actually how the infowar ecosystem works: a weaponized message is introduced into the internet with the hope that credible outlets will pick up on the piece and then republish it for their readers, with this cycle possibly repeating over and over until the original source is obscured via the process of “information laundering”. The general attention-deficit audience also has a predisposition to taking headlines for granted because many people usually don’t even read the many articles that they come across on a daily basis, instead just taking in the message that the headline conveys and maybe just skimming the piece if they think it sounds intriguing. The average person doesn’t even read entire articles unless they have a preexisting interest in the topic, which is why fake news and the wider field of strategic communications are so influential in today’s world. Bearing that in mind, it’s very possible that people might just read the “Epoch Times’” misleading headline that was republished by Arab News and wrongly assume that the Russian-Chinese Strategic Partnership is experiencing unprecedented friction over the issue of arms sales to Pakistan.

Concluding Thoughts

Nothing could be further from the truth since all three Great Powers are closer today — both to one another and altogether — than at any other point in history, and the Russian Ambassador to China literally just spoke about the need for those two Great Powers and their many partners in the Belt & Road Initiative, Eurasian Economic Union, and Shanghai Cooperation Organization to strengthen their multilateral integration, which clearly includes Pakistan as well. Whatever the general public is misled into thinking isn’t going to change this objective geostrategic reality, but the concern arises that think tank experts and other policymaking individuals in those three countries and others might be influenced by this weaponized narrative if Arab News’ amplification of the “Epoch Times’” piece directly or indirectly brings it to their attention and it ends up shaping their perception of the new Multipolar Trilateral as a result. It’s for this reason why it was necessary to expose the original source’s Falun Gong connections and elaborate on its infowar motivation in the strategic context of the New Cold War.


By Andrew Korybko
Source: Eurasia Future

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0 Comments

  1. The Epoch Times USED to reflect a Chinese perspective on world happenings, many years ago. It has now been overtaken by the Western Establishment, for many years, which explains this phenomenon.

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