Chair McCaul in the Hill: The US Must Meaningfully Confront Chinese Communist Party Propaganda

Rep. McCaul is the Chairman of the China Task Force. This op-ed originally appeared in The Hill.

In the 1980s, the AIDS virus was ravaging the world, but little was known about its origin. The Soviet Union seized on this fear to launch one of their most notorious disinformation campaigns. Dubbed “Operation Infektion,” Soviet intelligence operatives spread conspiracy theories blaming American scientists for developing the virus as part of biological weapons research. The operation was intended to damage America’s reputation abroad and divert attention from both the spread of AIDS within the USSR and U.S. accusations the Soviet Union was developing biological weapons.

If these goals and tactics sound familiar, they should: once again, we are facing a virus that’s devastated the world — and another malign dictatorship is using disinformation and propaganda to sow fear, undermine America’s reputation, and deflect attention from their communist corruption.

Since late last year, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used every trick in their handbook to cover up their lies, which ultimately led to the virus becoming a pandemic. They silenced doctors and journalists reporting the truth. They cajoled their handpicked leader of the World Health Organization (WHO) to promote their lie the virus did not spread from human to human. They allowed massive travel during their Spring Festival, helping the disease to spread not only throughout China but into other countries. And true to form, they launched a massive disinformation and propaganda campaign to deflect blame from their coverup.

Read the full op-ed here.