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June 27, 2024 – 08:23
A historic lunar mission has highlighted China’s growing space prowess but also unleashed a torrent of anti-U.S. disinformation that researchers say reflects the bitter competition between the two powers.
China celebrated the return of the Chang’e 6 probe to Earth on Tuesday with samples of rocks and dust from the far side of the moon, after a 53-day mission that revived old conspiracy theories about NASA’s Apollo moon landings.
AFP fact-checkers have debunked a litany of Chinese-language messages suggesting NASA’s historic 1969 mission – the first human moon landing – was staged, as well as others misrepresenting photos of later moon landings.
The falsehoods, according to researchers, could generate more anti-American perceptions in China, at a time of tension in relations between Washington and Beijing.
“There is certainly a huge space rivalry between the United States and China, and any misinformation about any country’s activity is worrying,” Saadia M. Pekkanen of Washington University told AFP.
“It is another way of denying the potential for space diplomacy in the geopolitical competition between the two countries,” he added.
When China’s National Space Agency released a photo in June of a stone Chinese flag raised on the far side of the moon by Chang’e 6, social media users compared it to a 1972 image of NASA astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt standing next to an American flag on the moon.
They falsely suggested that the Apollo 16 mission was staged because Schmitt’s cloth flag appears to be “blown” by the wind, even though NASA explained that he used a horizontal pole to extend it.
– “Unsafety” –
Posts on the Chinese network Weibo comparing the images generated waves of comments. A user with more than 13 million followers wrote that the photos prove that “the Americans did not land on the moon.”
Other users shared a photo of the German band Rammstein in astronaut suits with a text on Weibo that read: “Now you think the American moon landing was real.”
Beijing has poured massive resources into its space programme over the past decade to bridge the gap with the United States and Russia.
China aims to send a manned mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to build a base on the lunar surface, while the United States plans to send astronauts to the Moon by 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission.
It was unclear whether the disinformation is fueled by Chinese state agents, but its rapid spread on tightly controlled social media raised questions about their possible support or involvement.
“Beijing sometimes allows anti-American sentiments and false information to run rampant on the Chinese internet as a safety valve for internal tensions,” Isaac Stone Fish, an executive at China-focused data firm Strategy Risks, told AFP.
“Allowing conspiracy theories about a US moon landing to spread could reflect Beijing’s insecurity about the China-US space race,” he added.
– Spread lies –
Researchers say the disinformation campaign suggests a common tactic of recycling existing conspiracy theories to sow distrust online.
“There is a large community on the Internet willing to talk about moon landing conspiracies,” Darren Linvill of Clemson University told AFP.
“If this audience can be used to spread a lie that portrays China in a more positive light, then all the better for China,” he said.
Chinese state media coverage has strongly praised the success of the Chang’e 6 probe, while criticizing the United States.
Washington has warned that the Chinese space program is used to conceal military objectives and an effort to achieve space hegemony.
The nationalist newspaper Global Times reported that the Chang’e 6 mission illustrates “(China’s) open and inclusive attitude toward international cooperation,” in contrast to the United States, which it said is “busy chanting the ‘China threat’ in the call space race.”
In that context, AFP denied messages in Chinese on Facebook, Weibo, TikTok and its Chinese version Douyin that quote a White House spokesperson saying that the United States and China posed on “different moons.”
“The Chinese population can be proud of the historic journey of their lunar module,” said Stone Fish.
“They do not have to be victims of the old conspiracy theory that the United States faked its moon landings.”
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