The plan and origin of media manipulation activities
Within a few weeks of the spread of the new coronavirus from China to other parts of the world, a harmful word began to circulate on the Internet: Some people believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a biological weapon made in a laboratory.
In mid-January 2020, Dr. Limeng Yan, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong, told her favorite YouTube host, Wang Dinggang, that she had heard the rumors about the origin of the new crown virus. Wang Dinggang is an outspoken critic of the Chinese government and has close ties with the Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui who is in exile. Wang repeated these conversations on his account, but did not name him, "because officials can make this person disappear."
On January 25, 2020, an ultra-partisan news organization called "G News" published an article titled "Breaking News: China Will Recognize Coronavirus from Its P4 Laboratory" to further promote the biological weapons conspiracy theory . "G News" is not the only media publishing this article, but its participation is extremely important because "G News" has close ties with Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon. Steve Bannon is the former executive chairman of Breitbar News and an ally of President Trump. In October 2017, Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon formed a party alliance to jointly promote anti-communist actions through the foundation of the rule of law and the rule of law society. The organization is funded by Guo Wengui and managed by Bannon. It aims to "protect and help individuals who are persecuted in China, especially those who have been punished for publicly opposing injustice." According to Guo Wengui, the reason why he and Bannon came together was because "they despised the Chinese Communist Party." They all have media backgrounds. Bannon was previously Trump's chief strategist. Prior to this, he ran the right-wing news website Breitbar. Guo Wengui founded and funded G Media, the company often publishes anti-communist reports on social media platforms, especially on the social media platform Parler (also known as rightist Twitter, users mostly come from the American conservative camp).
Bannon said that before Yan Limeng’s first report was released, Wang Dinggang’s YouTube video had been shown to him and translated for him. As doubts about the origin of COVID-19 continued to spread in right-wing media networks, Guo Wengui and Bannon contacted Yan Limeng. This is the beginning of Yan Limeng's report being manipulated by the media.
