There'a a global positive shift in opinion on China that's happened over the first year of Trump. The trend was already there in the "Global South" but it's now happening everywhere. This shift is driven by real economic and geopolitical pressures. E.g. US tariffs and military threats, Chinese investment and cheap EVs, etc. Add to that there are more people on Lemmy from non-NA/EU countries than on US-centric platforms like Reddit and this shift becomes even more apparent here. In Western countries the positive opinion on China is less one of an ally and more of a necessary partner. In Canada, the opposition to trade with China shifted from 80% in 2020 to 32% at the end of 2025.

If you're primed to not see anything positive about China, then even positive views around partnership could appear as pro-China propaganda. Also people in the Global South are much more aware of US and European atrocities so when you present China's atrocities as a counter to people's positive opinions, it looks unserious and hypocritical to them. If you see their hypocrisy callout as a propaganda method and you call it out as such, you lose all good faith credibility with them.

Pics:

From

PS: Along with this shift, comes the realization among some that a lot of what they thought about China came from corporate US interest via US-owned media that pushes a line useful for that interest. This has happened to me and multiple RL friends and family in Canada. The conversations on the last thanksgiving table have changed a lot since 2024. At present we're in the necessary partner camp.

I'm no fan of Tankies or the CCP, but I'm really not seeing any more pro-china propaganda than you see elsewhere, mostly excitement as a result of their green tech stuff or HSR (while ignoring why China has a need for HSR)

I am seeing a surprising amount of anti-china paranoia from the UK press right now that frankly seems like it's engineered by the US given its timing. Like articles about diplomats using burner phones as if that isn't standard (for all countries).

Treat it like a troll post. Downvote and move on, if the name becomes familiar block them.

This goes for all propaganda not just the stuff you are against.

On the topic, I've been seeing plenty of war-hawk think-tank accounts who only post propaganda, like:

• Scotty@scribe.disroot.org
• Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org
• randomname@scribe.disroot.org
• 0x815@feddit.org (and all their alt-accounts, including 0x815@feddit.de and thelucky8@beehaw.org )

They are clearly not involved in our communities.

I'm sorry to say that lemmy is not popular enough to be on CPC's radar.

The CPC's propaganda budget is mostly focused on what Chinese people would read if they get over the great firewall (mainly YouTube and Twitter).

Second to that is the general "feel good" stories, like scenery, food, or panda (recently high-speed trains), aiming at the mainstream Western public. You may see those on lemmy, but it's very unlikely that the state propagandists are the ones posting them here.

Plenty of Russian propaganda too. Every "conservative" community or server is essentially acting in Putin's favor.

Ironically, the most active user on the current #2 China community, !china@sopuli.xyz, is an absolutely indefatigable anti-Chinese propagandist.

This person, @Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org posts multiple times per day, usually quite sensible and well-sourced articles, but always on the same downer subjects (repression, Uighurs, corruption and so on) and never anything that paints China (let alone its government) in the slightest positive light. Since nobody else in this community can match their posting stamina, the end result is a community that, to newcomers, looks like one rando's "I hate China" blog. Hardly surprising that it's not a very successful community.

I've asked this user to consider dropping the tempo a bit, and been met with defensiveness. I complained in private to the mod, who is completely AWOL, and they didn't care. Oh well.

lemmy.ml is just like that, maybe you want to look for a new home instance.

You have discovered .ml? Yeah the lead devs are tankies lol

You are your own algorithm. If you see a lot of propaganda or whatever, it's because you chose that content at one point or another. And you can just as easily stop seeing it by unfollowing and blocking.

Also, evidence. I see no signs of rampant propaganda on the fediverse, not on Lemmy or on Mastodon. Now, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But that's where you should provide examples so I can check for myself.

Your instance is the lead actor on that one

Chinese, Chinese, Chinese! Doesn't anyone care about the Lithuanians and what they are doing!!?? /s

Capitalist propaganda is rampant on the fediverse. We need to discuss ways to combat this. Most big instances -generalist, tech or something are wholly controlled by bourgeois people who would rather uphold state violence than democracy. What do you think?

There are a lot of people supportive of the PRC, both because the US Empire is declining and the PRC is positioned as an alternative to the US Empire's naked terrorism, and because Lemmy has a lot of communists. Lemmy has a lot of communists because the lead developers are communists, FOSS attracts communists, and because as Reddit bans communist communities they are often suggested to come here.

There's absolutely no credible evidence of CPC interference in Lemmy, this is a normal thing to happen to a FOSS alternative to Reddit.

One group- memes or something is wholly controlled by Chinese state actors.

As one of the moderators of !memes@lemmy.ml i encourage OP to look at the sort of posts i make and tell me - do you really think i'm a "Chinese state actor"?

Do you think all these posts i make in, eg, !hoch@lemmy.ml and !goodnews@lemmy.ml and !badnews@lemmy.ml and !eleven@lemmy.ml... these are all part of a carefully-crafted cover, and I'm actually being paid by China to delete totally-not-racist posts depicting their president as a yellow cartoon bear?

And for this service, to maintain my cover, they also pay me to create memes like this and this and this and this and this and this (and defending that one against less informed nerds) and this and this and this (a small sample of my OC here)?

And do you think China paid for this understandable explanation of asymmetric cryptography using high-school level math, because someone asked, deep in a thread about a service which I'd also already debunked the snake-oil privacy claims of?

Really?