DFRAC Exclusive: Propaganda of Pakistani-Chinese Users Over G20 Summit

The G-20 summit of 20 countries is set to take place in India this year. This significant summit will be held on September 9 and 10 at the newly constructed State of the-Art Convention Complex in the heart of India i.e. New Delhi. This meeting holds great significance for our country as it is hosting the G-20 summit for the first time. There has been a massive buzz on social media about the G-20 meeting. However, several users are running anti-India campaigns under the pretext of G20.

In this report, we are providing a detailed data analysis of the propaganda being conducted in the Chinese language. The major points of this report are as follows:

• Chinese Twitter Army’s Propaganda on G20
• Propaganda by Pakistani users in Chinese language over G20
• Pakistani Users’ Misleading News over Kashmir in Chinese Language
• Wordcloud of Chinese and Pakistani Users

India is hosting G20

On 16 November 2022, India was handed over the presidency of the G-20 at the Bali summit of the G-20. India’s G-20 presidency has started on 1 December 2022 and will continue till 30 November 2023. Earlier on 8 November 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the G-20 logo and unveiled India’s G-20 Presidency theme – “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. There are more than 200 G-20 meetings in India, with 60 countries serving as hosts. A total of 12,300 delegates from 110 countries have participated in these meetings so far. In these meetings, 13 Sherpa Track Working Groups, 8 Finance Track Workstreams, 11 Engagement Groups, and 4 Initiatives have had positive discussions.

Chinese Twitter Army’s Propaganda on G20

Chinese accounts have also posted on Facebook regarding the G-20 summit and Kashmir. Eng Hui James Tan claimed on Facebook: “Both countries are disappointed over India ‘s Presidency of G-20 summit this year. China has stated that it will not participate, and Modi’s reaction seems to be threatening”.

Several Chinese accounts on Twitter and Facebook have shared the tweet of Pakistan Strategic Forum (@ForumStrategic) on G-20. These tweets stated: “The countries refused to participate in the G-20 meeting in India’s illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).”

Later, Several Chinese accounts shared the screenshot of @ForumStrategic’s tweet on various platforms including Twitter, and Facebook.

A Chinese user named @hexieshehui1 retweeted a tweet from @ForumStrategic and wrote: “China’s non-participation in the G-20 meeting in Kashmir is due to the regional dispute with India on one side and support for Pakistan on the other. Other Islamic countries have expressed support for Pakistan on religious grounds.” The image given below shows Chinese users sharing posts from the Pakistan Strategic Forum.

Another Chinese account named Ou Mei Zhen (Uncle Shun) posted on Facebook with the caption: “Modi is ashamed, and he is also “threatening” China!”. The account also shared a tweet by Pakistan Strategic Forum (@ForumStrategic) on G20.

Subsequently, several Chinese accounts started posting screenshots of the Pakistan Strategic Forum on G-20. The screenshot of these posts is provided below:

Below is a collage of these Chinese accounts posting on G-20 on Facebook.

Propaganda by Pakistani users in Chinese language over G20

Apart from the G-20, numerous Pakistani users continue to run anti-India propaganda regarding Kashmir in the Chinese language. Here is the analysis of three Pakistani users.

ImranGhazali (@ImranGhazaliPK):

Imran Ghazali (@ImranGhazaliPK) is a Twitter account with 123k followers. The account claims in its bio that he is the Digital Head of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, PTI. He also works for several other organizations, which are mentioned in his bio. Many of these accounts have been withheld in India i.e. restricted in India. Accounts such as  @GovtofPakistan and @alifailaanpk.are also included.

Imran Ghazali has a considerable number of followers, more than 123,000. The majority of these followers are from Pakistan. Among the admirers and followers of Imran Ghazali, the highest number of users are supporters of the former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

A video was posted from this Twitter account with a caption written in Chinese. The video allegedly depicts harassment in Kashmir. This video was captioned: “The suffering of the people of Kashmir began on 27 October 1947 when Indian troops landed at IIOJK after New Delhi suspended the special status of IIOJK on 5 August by revoking Article 370 and Article 35-A of the Indian Constitution increased”.

Imran Ghazali’s tweet on Kashmir in the Chinese language has been liked by the official account of former Minister of State for Climate Change, Zartaj Gul Wazir, Government of Pakistan. Apart from this,  several Pakistani accounts have also liked the post. The graphic given below shows the accounts that have liked Imran Ghazali’s post.

Moreover, the video posted by Imran Ghazali was shared by other Pakistani users as well with captions in the Chinese language. A collage of these posts is being provided here.

MarsPlanet (@MarsPlanet16):

There is a Twitter account named “MarsPlanet” (@MarsPlanet16) with 4148 followers, and it has posted 49,400 tweets so far. The account’s cover photo features an image of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. This account usually tweets in Urdu and Chinese languages. Notably, the majority of the tweets are in Chinese language for running propaganda over Kashmir.

Mars Planet has posted a controversial map. In this map, he has depicted Pakistan as extended up to Agra in Uttar Pradesh. Not only this, Kashmir, Gujarat, some parts of Himachal, some parts of Rajasthan, the capital of New Delhi, and Haryana have been displayed as part of Pakistan on this map. In this map, Punjab is portrayed as Khalistan.

Mars planet shared this map and wrote: “InshaAllah Kashmir is about to escape from Indian brutality. China has restored India’s withdrawal from Kashmir and restoration of Article 370 to previous positions. If not, we will occupy the next Kashmir. Now Indian govt is on edge but next is Kashmir freedom”.

The map that has been shared by Pakistani users, has continued to be shared in Pakistan since 2015.  In the picture given below, you can see that after 2015, this disputed map went viral in Pakistan in 2019, 2020, and 2021 as well.

When we searched about this picture further, we found that it was first posted in 2015 by Dr. Farhan K Virk (@FarhanKVirk), a supporter of Pakistan’s Istehkaam Pakistan party. Farhan posted this picture in support of the hashtag #PakistanWithKhalistan. In this post, he replied to Indian journalist Yashwant Deshmukh (@YRDeshmukh).

In another tweet in Chinese, Mars Planet wrote that the Muslims of Kashmir are looking towards China for freedom and China has become quite significant for the Kashmiri people.

“China must help Kashmiri people while otherwise Indian atrocities are killing, beating, and robbing Kashmiri people every day. Now, Kashmiris are looking to China to free them from India’s brutal rule” mentioned in another tweet.

Donnee China (@donneechina):

“There is a user on Twitter named Donee China (@donneechina). This user consistently tweets in the Chinese language about Kashmir. While sharing a poster, Donnee China wrote: “On August 5th, we commemorate Kashmir Day, a day of great significance. On this day, we express our solidarity with our Kashmiri brothers and sisters facing enormous challenges. The Kashmir issue transcends national borders; it is an issue that touches the heart of humanity and has profound significance in the Islamic world”.

In a tweet, Donne China wrote: “Kashmiris to celebrate Jammu Martyrs’ Day on 6th November Kashmiris will celebrate Jammu Martyrs’ Day on 6th November. The day is held annually to commemorate the massacre of thousands of Jammu Muslims killed by Dogra forces in November 1947”.

Donee China’s entire Timeline is flooded with tweets over Pakistan and Kashmir.  He has tweeted specifically more than 7 times about Kashmir in the Chinese language. In these tweets, he has largely run propaganda on Kashmir.

Wordcloud:

Here’s a word cloud, showing the words frequently used in the posts on Twitter, is provided below: 

Conclusion:

India hosted a tourism working group meeting of the G20 countries in Kashmir on May 22nd and 23rd this year. China and Pakistan also expressed their opposition to this meeting. China had also refused to participate in this meeting. However, several powerful nations including the USA, Russia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, European Union, and South Africa participated in this event. At the same time, Pakistani social media users had fiercely shared fake news and misleading news regarding Kashmir. Besides that, Pakistani users had shared massive posts intentionally to run the propaganda in the Chinese language as well. The Copy-paste pattern was revealed in the posts of these users.

Now, the meeting of G-20 countries is going to be held in the month of September, for which, once again, Pakistani and Chinese users have become active on social media and are sharing fake and misleading posts in this regard.