Beijing’s Propaganda Support for Russian Biological Warfare Disinformation, Part 1: Accusations Concerning the War in Ukraine

John Dotson

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Introduction

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, People’s Republic of China (PRC) officials and state media have promoted and amplified key elements of Moscow’s narrative that the war has been provoked by the United States and its NATO allies in Europe. At several PRC foreign ministry press conferences this spring, spokespeople lent credence to Russian disinformation that U.S.-sponsored biological laboratories had been “discovered” in Ukraine, and implied that the U.S. is in contravention of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention (PRC Foreign Ministry [FMPRC]), March 16; April 14; April 19). These same themes have also been actively promoted in state-controlled media. This article examines the origins of this Russian disinformation effort concerning alleged U.S. biological facilities in Ukraine, and analyzes some of the means by which Beijing has helped to amplify this narrative.

Russian Allegations Regarding Biological Warfare Labs in Ukraine

Amidst the extensive propaganda and disinformation spread by the government of the Russian Federation in relation to its war of aggression in Ukraine, one of the most prominent narratives invoked to justify the invasion—aside from the bizarre assertion that the invasion is intended to liberate Ukraine from “drug addicts and neo-Nazis”—is the conspiracy theory that the U.S. has been funding and sponsoring biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine (TASS, February 25; March 9). One of the most prominent spokesmen for this disinformation campaign has been the commander of the “Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces of Russia” Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who has actively pushed the allegation in a series of public statements since mid-March.

On March 17, Kirillov gave a media briefing in Moscow in which he asserted that “components of biological weapons were being made on the territory of Ukraine,” involving the “direct participation of the Pentagon in the financing of military biological projects.” Kirillov insinuated that these biological weapons programs were connected to the appearance of an unnamed “mosquito-borne parasitic disease” in the vicinity of Kherson in 2018; to “drug-resistant tuberculosis… among the citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics,” also in 2018; and to outbreaks of avian flu in Russia and the European Union in 2021. He asserted that such outbreaks “may indicate a deliberate infection, or an accidental leakage of the pathogen from one of the biological laboratories located on the territory of Ukraine,” and vowed that “we will continue to examine the evidence and inform the global community about the illegal activities of the Pentagon and other U.S. government agencies in Ukraine” (Russia Today, March 17).A graphic from a presentation delivered on March 17 by Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov, alleging that the U.S. has been collaborating with Ukrainian officials to operate secret biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine. (Image source: Russia Today, March 17)

Kirillov spoke again in mid-May, promoting a spin-off conspiracy theory that Ukrainian officials, with American backing, had intentionally spread a “highly pathogenic strain of tuberculosis” (TB) in 2020 in Luhansk (an eastern Ukrainian region under the partial control of a Russian-sponsored separatist client state). According to Kirillov, “leaflets made in the form of counterfeit banknotes were infected with the causative agent of tuberculosis and distributed among minors in the village of Stepovoe,” with the intention of fostering an outbreak of drug-resistant TB in the region (Russia Today, May 11).

Such Russian accusations are evocative of the “active measures” undertaken by the KGB and allied Soviet Bloc intelligence services during Cold War era—such as “Operation Denver,” a highly successful disinformation campaign in the 1980s to spread the false narrative that the AIDS virus was produced by a U.S. military biological weapons program based out of Ft. Detrick, Maryland. [2] These time-tested, made-to-order conspiracy theories have been dusted off in the service of Russian information operations connected to the war in Ukraine—and this time around, the diplomatic and propaganda systems of the PRC have consistently acted as a megaphone for repeating and amplifying this Russian state disinformation.

PRC Support for Russian Biological Warfare Disinformation

The diplomatic messaging and propaganda systems of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have refrained from explicitly endorsing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but have consistently offered informational support on two levels: first, by repeating and amplifying Russian state messages; and second, by promoting a steady stream of anti-Western propaganda that identifies America and NATO as the real causes of the war (U.S. State Department, May 2). One of the clearest themes within this process has been the PRC effort to hype Moscow’s active disinformation related to alleged U.S.-Ukrainian collaborative biological warfare programs. In this, the PRC has generally followed a two-track approach: one directed to international audiences, in which the PRC publicizes Russian narratives in a sympathetic fashion, while avoiding an explicit endorsement of the claims; and another directed to Chinese-speaking audiences both domestically and abroad, in which the Russian claims are presented uncritically as fact.

Amplifying Russian Claims for International Audiences

An example of the former, internationally-focused approach could be observed in official channels as early as March 16, when PRC Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian (赵立坚) engaged in a scripted exchange with state broadcaster CCTV, which referenced accusations from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the U.S. was maintaining “hundreds of such [military biological] laboratories, including almost 30 just in Ukraine alone.” In response, Zhao replied that “We have noted [Lavrov’s] remarks. Biological security bears on the common interest of all humanity… the international community has long-held severe concerns about the biological military activities conducted by the U.S. at home and overseas” (FMPRC, March 16).

Similar exchanges have followed on subsequent dates, with an additional theme being the accusation that the U.S. is in violation of its responsibilities as a signatory to the U.N. Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). [3] In one such example from April 14, Zhao conducted another scripted exchange with a reporter from the state-run China Daily, who asked about Russian accusations that the U.S. was attempting to “divert the international community’s attention from the biological laboratories discovered in Ukraine.” In response, Zhao stated that “the U.S. has not yet given any convincing explanation for its bio-military activities. Undertaking consultation and cooperation to address concerns is a requirement of the [BWC]… How many biological samples did the U.S. ship out of Ukraine [and] for what purpose?… Did the U.S. conduct dangerous research overseas that is prohibited in the U.S.?” (FMPRC, April 14). A still image from PRC state media, showing Vladimir Putin’s May 16 speech before representatives of the CSTO in Moscow. The captions read: “America Is Concealed in the Biological Laboratories,” and “Putin: American Laboratories in Ukraine Are Fundamentally for Researching Biological Weapons” (source: Peng Pai News, May 19).

Such statements have not been limited to diplomatic channels, but have also been promoted in state media—once again, normally amplifying Russian claims in a sympathetic fashion, rather than making novel accusations. For example, the state broadcaster CGTN—with coverage copied in the CCP’s official mouthpiece, People’s Daily—echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s May 16 speech in Moscow before representatives of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), writing that “President Putin pointed out that the Pentagon has established a number of biological laboratories in Ukraine… Documentary evidence obtained suggests that these laboratories were engaged in producing components that could be used to create biological weapons” (People’s Daily, May 18).

Assertions of Russian Claims as Fact for Chinese-Speaking Audiences

A more full-throated endorsement of Russian claims has appeared in Chinese-language media intended for a domestic audience—in which accusations against the U.S. are presented as fact, without the legerdemain of re-publicizing Russian state sources. In one such example from March 17—the same day that Kirillov presented his press briefing, in an apparent display of coordinated propaganda between the two governments—a state-produced news video announced that “Russia has discovered 30 biological labs subordinate to America inside Ukraine.” The video further insinuated that American-sponsored bio labs were responsible for producing the SARS CoV-2 virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, opining that:

America’s biological laboratories in Ukraine have attracted high-level international attention, many countries in succession have expressed apprehensions; previously there have been many people who have linked America’s biological laboratories with the novel coronavirus, but America has refused to give a direct response, and has even sought to ‘shake the pot at’ [i.e., blame] other countries (Jisu Guancha Shipin, March 17).

This same pattern is maintained in Chinese-language media directed towards the global ethnic Chinese diaspora. The CCP has invested a large-scale effort in recent years to establish control over the content of diaspora media, in order to ensure that it will “transmit well China’s voice” (传播好中国声音, chuanbo hao Zhonggu shengyin)—that is, to mirror the content of the PRC’s state-controlled domestic media. [4] In such outlets, the conspiracy theory about biological weapons labs in Ukraine is similarly reported as established, objective fact (see accompanying map image).“Russia Has Found American Biological Weapons Labs in Ukraine!” A March 11 headline in Washington Chinese Daily News (華府新聞日報, Huafu Xinwen Ribao), a Chinese-language newspaper in the Washington, DC area (author’s photograph).

Conclusion

The effort to legitimate the invasion of Ukraine by invoking a national security threat from alleged U.S.-sponsored biological warfare laboratories is consistent with a long pattern of Russian state disinformation, one that extends from the present day through the past decade, and all the way back to the Soviet era. In fact, as will be discussed in the second article in this series, there are echoes of such biological warfare conspiracy theories going as far back as the Korean War. However, in contrast with Cold War “active measures” such as “Operation Denver,” in the present Ukrainian conflict these Russian disinformation efforts are being reinforced and trumpeted by the diplomatic and media messaging apparatus of the PRC—a state with far greater informational clout than the Russian Federation, especially in terms of influence in the developing world. The historical legacy of past Soviet-PRC disinformation campaigns concerning biological weapons, and Beijing’s latter-day motivations for involving itself with the disinformation efforts pertaining to Ukraine, will be discussed in the follow-up article in this series.