China state-fund media outlet Global Times followed its Russian counterpart in distributing the fabricated report on Ukraine President Zelensky's escape. Image curated from screenshot of Austin Ramzy's tweet. Discussions on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo, turned to international affairs after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed two decrees asserting the independence of two Ukraine provinces on February 21. A number of foreign government representatives began using the platform to state their stands and express their concerns. In an attempt to debunk Russian pro-war propaganda circulating on Chinese social media, the China office of the European Commission (EU China) began debunking fake news on Weibo on March 4. However, the effort has had very little effect. The European Union announced the ban on Russia state-funded media outlets Russian Today (RT) and Sputnik on March 2, 2022, as a response to the “toxic lies justifying Putin’s war,” as described by EU president von der Leyen. While the western world is getting aware of the Russian war propaganda, fake news portraying the Ukrainian government as terrorists and Nazi supporters has continued circulating in the Chinese speaking world through mainland Chinese media outlets which heavily rely on RT and Sputnik as main sources of information on the Ukraine crisis. The way the China state media followed its Russian counterpart in spreading fake news has raised many's eyebrows on Twitter. New York Times’ journalist Austin Ramzy mocked at Global Times’ copying of Sputnik's reports on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's escape: Fool me once, fool me twice, Russia/China state media nexus edition pic.twitter.com/wXuaabeIq5 — Austin Ramzy (@austinramzy) March 7, 2022 Another New York Times columnist Li Yuan also highlighted how the public perception in China has embraced the Russian narrative that the war is against the so-called “Ukrainian fascism”: When it comes to information, the Chinese government is a control freak. Yet after Russia invaded Ukraine, China allowed Kremlin’s propaganda machine to help shape public perception of the war. My latest on RT and Sputnik in China https://t.co/GJ7KrSQOKO — Li Yuan (@LiYuan6) March 4, 2022 As Chinese netizens have followed the Ukraine crisis closely on Weibo, EU China took the opportunity to start posting Chinese FactCheck reports regarding the Ukraine crisis using hashtags #globaltalks (#共話全球), #misinformation (#虛假訊息), #factcheck (#事實核查) and #standwithUkraine (#支持烏克蘭). Thus far there are six false claims that EU China has addressed through its Weibo account: Yet, the FactCheck reports have only attracted a large number of attacks. The most popular comments in the thread attacked the description of human rights abuse in Xinjiang as Uyghur genocide by western countries. For example, the following comment has more than 10,000 likes: 你们在中国新疆制造假新闻，还在中国社交媒体散布不实信息竟然为纳粹政权辩护，我替你们设计了一面新旗帜 You people have fabricated news about Xinjiang and now spread misinformation on Chinese social media to defend a Nazi government, I designed a new flag for you. This Chinese netizen has put the Nazi icon at the middle of the European star-ring flag. It is noteworthy that on March 3, the Chinese propaganda authorities handed down instructions to “turn down the temperature on public sentiment toward the Russia-Ukraine conflict” (via China Digital Times). Specifically, online platforms were asked to remove content that challenge the Chinese government's official statements and foreign policy stances, in light of Sino-Russian antagonism among other harmful content such as public anti-war declarations. It is obvious that the Chinese netizens’ reactions to EU China’s FactCheck reports are in alignment with the Chinese government’s official stand, which claimed on March 4 that the US is the source of disinformation on the Ukraine crisis: Spreading disinformation cannot hide the #US’ own responsibility. pic.twitter.com/C9QiKJQJtt — Spokesperson发言人办公室 (@MFA_China) March 4, 2022 In fact, since the beginning of the war, Chinese state-funded media outlets have blamed NATO for Russian aggression, as highlighted by Consul General of China in Belfast Zhang Maifang on Twitter: Some country has been smearing #China with the #Ukraine issue. Fabricating rumors to shirk one’s own responsibility is very hypocritical.