How Chinese Agents Posed as American Media
A new investigation has uncovered a sprawling network of websites impersonating major international news outlets to covertly push pro-China narratives.
Why It Matters
The findings suggest influence operations are increasingly blending with private-sector marketing tactics, creating a murky ecosystem that amplifies Beijing's messaging while masquerading as legitimate journalism.
Such campaigns risk eroding trust in global media and complicate efforts to counter disinformation, as they exploit both Western platforms and Chinese social media to give fabricated stories an air of credibility.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., via email with a request for comment.
What To Know
Graphika, a New York-based company that leverages artificial intelligence to analyze online communities, identified 43 domains and 37 subdomains spoofing outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal. These sites hosted ads, Chinese state media content and messaging favorable to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), often copied directly from real news sites to appear authentic.
Technical indicators link the network to two Chinese firms previously tied to HaiEnergy, a pro-Beijing campaign flagged by Google's threat analysis team. The tactics mirror earlier operations such as Paperwall and DuringBridge, suggesting a shared playbook.
The investigation also surfaced ties to 30 Chinese companies and three individuals involved in public relations and digital marketing. The evidence suggests these actors used the spoofed domains in contracts to promote CCP-linked activities-though it remains unclear if clients knew the sites were fake.
Some domains amplified attacks on Falun Gong, a spiritual movement long targeted by Beijing, while others promoted Chinese traditional medicine, commercial products and even cryptocurrency schemes.
The pattern aligns with prior research showing Chinese PR companies leveraging fake news sites to launder influence content since 2022. While most domains target Chinese audiences, several cater to English-speaking users abroad.
Accounts linked to “spamouflage,” or a propaganda campaign using fake accounts and spam-like posts, later boosted this content on Western platforms, underscoring overlaps between state-backed influence operations and private marketing firms.
What People Are Saying
Graphika, in its report: “Spamouflage amplification of these domains reinforces the suspected deep ties between the PRC [People’s Republic of China]-backed influence apparatus and the Chinese private sector.
“Our investigation builds upon the rapidly expanding body of research documenting this influence technique popularized by China-based actors since 2022: leveraging the Chinese private sector to establish inauthentic news websites and launder pro-China messaging and IO content.”
What Happens Next
It remains uncertain whether platforms or policymakers will act on Graphika’s findings.
Newsweek
This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 3:00 AM.