A new Twitter account shows how the Chinese Communist Party stirs up ultra-nationalism

War has made the Kremlin try harder to envelop Russians in a parallel information universe, in which Ukraine is run by Nazis and Russian soldiers are liberators. China’s government is doing something similar. Whereas its propaganda for foreign ears stresses China’s desire for global harmony, at home it not only allows but even encourages the expression of caustically nationalist views online, especially on topics such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, covid-19 and Ukraine.

A group of anonymous activists is now trying to expose this parallel universe to the wider world. In March they launched a Twitter account that translates for foreign audiences extremist commentary that China’s censors allow on social-media platforms. The Great Translation Movement (tgtm) provides the non-Chinese-speaking world with a rare glimpse of how the Communist Party distorts online discourse among its citizens at home and abroad, where many get their news from Chinese social media (Twitter itself is blocked in China).