Los Angeles Times - 23.08.2019

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THE WORLD

BEIJING — He said he is
30, the father of one child,
and loves Chinese poetry, lit-
erature and the guqin, a sev-
en-stringed traditional in-
strument dating back thou-
sands of years.
On social media, he is Ou
Lu Wang Ji, the name of a fa-
mous piece of guqin music
about a fisherman and a
flock of seagulls.
He is also among the hun-
dreds of people in China
whose Twitter or Facebook
accounts were suspended
this week after the platforms
said they had discovered a
Chinese government-
backed network engaged in
a propaganda campaign
against Hong Kong’s protest
movement.
“My Facebook account
was blocked,” Ou Lu Wang
Ji, who declined to give his
real name, said in an inter-
view over a Chinese messag-
ing app. “All I did was to post
content against the mobs
and supporting Hong Kong
police.”
He called himself a “Chi-
nese patriot” but denied
that he is a government-
sponsored troll or part of
any coordinated effort.
The crackdown began
Monday, when Twitter an-
nounced it had suspended
936 accounts originating in
China for “deliberately and
specifically attempting to
sow political discord in
Hong Kong” as part of a “co-
ordinated state-backed
campaign.”
Facebook soon followed,
removingseven pages, five
accounts and three groups
engaged in “coordinated in-
authentic behavior” that
originated in mainland
China and targeted the
Hong Kong protests.
The suspended accounts
all used virtual private net-
works, which are illegal in
China, to get around China’s
ban on Twitter and
Facebook.
Like many of the other
blocked users, Ou Lu Wang
Ji is a member of a national-
ist forum on a Reddit-style
Chinese message board
called Diba, hosted by Chi-
na’s internet giant Baidu.
Ared banner across the
top of the forum reads,
“Hong Kong is part of China
forever,” in gold lettering in
English text and Mandarin
characters.
“Diba netizens are simply
a generic name for patriotic
youth, and the things we do
are purely spontaneous, or-
ganized by a group of young
people from all over the

place,” he said. “Any patri-

otic youth would have the

same opinions as us.”

The Times sent mes-

sages to 20 Diba users, most

of whom declined to com-

ment or responded with a

single line.

“We are a group of patri-

otic youth,” was all one, Nan

Yi, would say.

“It’s very tight right now,”

said another, A Lie, referring

to the Twitter crackdown. “I

suggest you ask others but

they will turn you down too.”

Pro-mainland China

posts on Twitter and Face-

book depict the Hong Kong

protesters as cockroaches,

dogs and zombies. The

Facebook pages of protest

organizers have been

flooded with nationalist pro-

Beijing posts in what ap-

peared to be coordinated at-

tacks.

The move by Twitter and

Facebook provoked outrage

in mainland China, where

netizens accused the U.S. so-

cial media giants of “shame-

ful hypocrisy.”

“So far, the Western style

of freedom and democracy is

like a dog’s fart,” a reader of

the state-run People’s Daily

posted in the comments sec-

tion of an article. “Patri-

otism is my only belief.”

“This Hong Kong inde-

pendence incident made me

realize that freedom of

speech is nothing but a joke.

Thank you for making us

Chinese even more united!”

another wrote. “Foreign

anti-China forces have never

stopped wanting China to

fail. They are so afraid of

China getting stronger and

stronger.” The Hong Kong

protest movement has

drawn millions of demon-

strators into the streets

since it began in June.

It started as an uprising

against a bill that would

have allowed extradition of

criminal suspects to main-

land China. That bill has

been suspended, though not

withdrawn.

The demands of the dem-

onstrators have expanded to

include an independent in-

quiry into police violence, a

retraction of rioting and

other charges against pro-

testers, universal suffrage

and the resignation of Hong

Kong Chief Executive Carrie

Lam.

Hong Kong authorities

have fought back with in-

creasingly tough tactics, in-

cluding firing tear gas in-

doors and deploying under-

cover police dressed as pro-

testers. As tensions have

risen, some protesters have

abandoned the movement’s

peaceful roots, such as when

they attacked police and as-

saulted two mainland Chi-

nese men.

Some of the accounts

suspended by Twitter mas-

queraded as news websites,

including Dream News and

@HKpolitcalnew, according

to Twitter, which posted de-

tails of the accounts and the

tweets.

Many of the suspended

Twitter accounts had been

dormant for years before

springing to life with tweets

opposed to the Hong Kong

protest. Some had earlier

been used to promote prod-

ucts including hot tubs, ba-

con and boots — as well as

politicians — before falling

silent.

One of the suspended ac-

counts, @saydullos1d, origi-

nated in Cottonwood, Colo.,

in 2013 and gained a follow-

ing of 21,000 by retweeting

about deer hunting and fish-

ing without anyone ever lik-

ing, retweeting or interact-

ing with the account’s

retweets.

Starting in 2018, the ac-

count began tweeting only in

Chinese, mainly retweeting

news from Chinese news

sites.

Then in June, it began

tweeting posts that were

critical of the protesters and

supportive of Hong Kong

police and authorities.

China has been making a

concerted effort to discredit

the Hong Kong protest

movement, characterizing it

as violent and led by shad-

owy foreign “black hands.”

On Wednesday, The Times

and other Western media

outlets received a letter from

Hua Chunying, director gen-

eral of the information de-

partment for the Chinese

Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

accusing the protesters of

“radical, violent and crimi-

nal behaviors” that “have

gone far beyond freedom of

speech and peaceful assem-

bly.”

“What’s worse, there is

quite a lot of evidence show-

ing that some forces of the

United States have directly

engaged in planning, organ-

izing and inciting violent

demonstrations in Hong

Kong,” the letter said.

The main support for

that claim was a 41-page

statement accusing the Na-

tional Endowment for

Democracy, a U.S. group

that has offered grants to

civil society and pro-democ-

racy projects around the

world, of backing the protest

movement financially.

The organization’s web-

site lists donations to both

Hong Kong and mainland

China.

The government’s propa-

ganda efforts also appear to

include an effort to boost the

social media following of at

least one Chinese news web-

site, the state-owned China

News Service.

According to the website

of the China Government

Procurement Service Infor-

mation Platform, on Aug. 16

the Chinese government

awarded a $178,400 contract

to a Beijing firm, One Sight

Technology, to used artifi-

cial-intelligence marketing

to get the news site 580,

more followers on Twitter,

Facebook and other plat-

forms.

One Sight planned to tar-

get the United States, Aus-

tralia and New Zealand and

other countries with big Chi-

nese diasporas, the contract

said.

Buying followers or ma-

nipulating information is

against Twitter’s terms of

service, although the prac-

tice is widespread in the U.S.

and elsewhere.

‘Chinese patriots’ or propagandists?

HUNDREDSof Twitter and Facebook accounts were suspended this week, alleged to be part of a Beijing-

backed network seeking to counter the Hong Kong protest movement. Above, commuters in Wuhan, China.

Zhang PengLightRocket

Blocked social media

users deny they’re

part of effort against

Hong Kong protests.

By Robyn Dixon

SEOUL —South Korea
will stop exchanging classi-
fied intelligence on North
Korea with Japan amid a bit-
ter trade dispute, Seoul said
Thursday in a surprise an-
nouncement likely to set
back U.S. efforts to bolster
security cooperation with
two of its most important al-
lies in the Asian region.
South Korea’s decision
will also further aggravate
its ties with Japan, which are
already at their lowest point
since the countries estab-
lished diplomatic ties in

1965. Japanese media said
      Tokyo lodged a protest with
      Seoul, and quoted unidenti-
      fied Tokyo officials as calling
      the South Korean move “ex-
      tremely regrettable.”
      Many experts had pre-
      dicted that South Korea
      would be unlikely to end the
      3-year-old intelligence-shar-
      ing deal for the sake of its re-
      lations with the United
      States.
      South Korea has been
      seeking U.S. help in resolv-
      ing the trade dispute, and
      Seoul and Washington have
      also been working together
      to restart stalled talks on

stripping North Korea of its

nuclear weapons.

South Korea’s presi-

dential office said it termi-

nated the intelligence deal

because Japan’s recent deci-

sion to downgrade South

Korea’s trade status caused

a “grave” change in security

cooperation between the

countries.

“Under this situation, the

government has determined

that maintaining the agree-

ment, which was signed for

the purpose of exchanging

sensitive military intelli-

gence on security, does not

serve our national inter-

ests,” Kim You-geun, the

deputy director of South Ko-

rea’s presidential national

security office, said in a na-

tionally televised statement.

He said South Korea will

formally notify Japan of its

decision before Saturday,

the deadline for an exten-

sion of the pact for another

year.

Japanese public broad-

caster NHK said an uniden-

tified Tokyo official de-

scribed the decision as “un-

believable,” while another

official said it wasn’t likely to

have much effect on security.

Since early last month,

Japan has imposed stricter

controls on exports to South

Korea of three chemicals es-

sential for manufacturing

semiconductors and display

screens — key export items

for South Korea — and de-

cided to remove South Ko-

rea from a list of countries

granted preferential trade

status.

South Korea accuses

Japan of weaponizing trade

to punish it over a separate

dispute linked to Japan’s

brutal colonial rule of the

Korean Peninsula from 1910

to 1945. Japan denies that,

saying its steps were taken

because of unspecified secu-

rity concerns.

The intelligence deal

went into effect in 2016, re-

portedly at the strong urg-

ing of the United States,

which wants to boost three-

way security cooperation to

better cope with North Ko-

rea’s nuclear threat and a

rising China.

Experts said the deal en-

abled a quicker exchange of

information between Seoul

and Tokyo. However, it is un-

clear how effective the deal

has been for both countries,

especially on intelligence on

North Korea, one of the

world’s most secretive coun-

tries.

South Korea halts intel

exchange with Japan

associated press