Sino-Russian Information Warfare Cooperation: A Global Threat to Democracy

Sino-Russ­ian infor­ma­tion war­fare coop­er­a­tion has emerged as a for­mi­da­ble chal­lenge to West­ern demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions through coor­di­nat­ed for­eign infor­ma­tion manip­u­la­tion and inter­fer­ence oper­a­tions. On June 30, 2025, the Cen­ter for Euro­pean Pol­i­cy Analy­sis pub­lished a com­pre­hen­sive report by Tamás Matu­ra reveal­ing how Chi­na and Rus­sia increas­ing­ly align their dis­in­for­ma­tion efforts, using AI-dri­ven pro­pa­gan­da, deep­fake tech­nolo­gies, and state-con­trolled media to under­mine NATO and EU cohe­sion while pro­mot­ing mul­ti­po­lar­i­ty through shared anti-West­ern nar­ra­tives. The report begins:

Chi­na and Russia’s coop­er­a­tion in for­eign infor­ma­tion manip­u­la­tion and inter­fer­ence (FIMI) rep­re­sents a grow­ing chal­lenge to the West. By align­ing their nar­ra­tives, lever­ag­ing state-con­trolled media, deploy­ing sophis­ti­cat­ed cyber strate­gies, and advo­cat­ing for a new infor­ma­tion order, the coun­tries present a for­mi­da­ble chal­lenge to demo­c­ra­t­ic infor­ma­tion ecosys­tems. While their strate­gies and pri­or­i­ties may dif­fer, their shared goal of under­min­ing West­ern influ­ence ensures con­tin­ued col­lab­o­ra­tion in this domain. Under­stand­ing these dynam­ics is cru­cial for devel­op­ing effec­tive coun­ter­mea­sures to safe­guard the integri­ty of infor­ma­tion spaces world­wide. This report exam­ines the depth and effec­tive­ness of the alleged coop­er­a­tion between Bei­jing and Moscow, explor­ing the extent to which their coop­er­a­tion lever­ages coor­di­nat­ed dis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paigns, cyber oper­a­tions, and media strate­gies to influ­ence glob­al per­cep­tions, chal­lenge demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions, and advance their geopo­lit­i­cal inter­ests. Under­stand­ing the depth and impli­ca­tions of this coop­er­a­tion is essen­tial for pol­i­cy­mak­ers and schol­ars aim­ing to safe­guard demo­c­ra­t­ic process­es and main­tain inter­na­tion­al stability

Read more: https://cepa.org/comprehensive-reports/sino-russian-convergence-in-foreign-information-manipulation-and-interference/

Key Points

• Both coun­tries employ state-con­trolled media out­lets like RT, Sput­nik, CGTN, and Glob­al Times that fre­quent­ly repub­lish and ampli­fy each oth­er’s con­tent to extend glob­al reach, par­tic­u­lar­ly in devel­op­ing nations.
• Chi­nese and Russ­ian FIMI net­works deploy mutu­al ampli­fi­ca­tion strate­gies, with bot net­works and AI-gen­er­at­ed con­tent cre­at­ing fab­ri­cat­ed news sto­ries and deep­fake videos while tar­get­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions and institutions.
• The report iden­ti­fies par­al­lel pat­terns in elec­tion inter­fer­ence, with Rus­si­a’s 2016 US elec­tion oper­a­tions com­ple­ment­ed by Chi­na’s “Spam­ou­flage” cam­paigns using fake accounts to spread divi­sive con­tent ahead of 2024 elections.
• Case stud­ies reveal coor­di­nat­ed influ­ence oper­a­tions across Africa, Latin Amer­i­ca, and the Asia-Pacif­ic, with both nations exploit­ing soci­etal fault lines and pro­mot­ing alter­na­tive gov­er­nance mod­els to chal­lenge West­ern hegemony.

Russian & Chinese Media Operations: Global Disinformation and Influence

Russ­ian and Chi­nese state media have increas­ing­ly con­verged in their glob­al oper­a­tions, lever­ag­ing both tra­di­tion­al and dig­i­tal plat­forms to ampli­fy shared nar­ra­tives and chal­lenge West­ern influ­ence. Chi­nese out­lets fre­quent­ly repeat Krem­lin rhetoric, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing crises such as the war in Ukraine, where they echo Russ­ian dis­in­for­ma­tion about NATO provo­ca­tions while avoid­ing direct con­dem­na­tion of Moscow’s actions.

Coor­di­nat­ed dig­i­tal cam­paigns now har­ness AI-dri­ven net­works to flood plat­forms like YouTube with pro-Chi­na and pro-Rus­sia con­tent, often using syn­thet­ic media and fake per­sonas to appear legit­i­mate and max­i­mize reach. As West­ern media influ­ence recedes, Chi­na and Rus­sia have rapid­ly expand­ed their state-backed media pres­ence into regions such as Africa and Asia, employ­ing strate­gies that blend pub­lic diplo­ma­cy with covert influ­ence oper­a­tions to exploit social divi­sions and under­mine demo­c­ra­t­ic institutions.

Exter­nal References:

1. Chi­na-Rus­sia Con­ver­gence in For­eign Infor­ma­tion Manip­u­la­tion and Interference

2. Rus­sia and Chi­na Use AI to Fuel Glob­al Dis­in­for­ma­tion, Ope­nAI Reveals

3. Ope­nAI Says Rus­sia and Chi­na Used Its A.I. in Covert Campaigns

Disclaimer

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.