How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing Coronavirus Media Sensation Increasingly allied, the American far right and members of the Chinese diaspora tapped into social media to give a Hong Kong researcher a vast audience for peddling unsubstantiated pandemic claims.
Dr. Li-Meng Yan wanted to remain anonymous. It was mid-January, and Dr. Yan, a researcher in Hong Kong, had been hearing rumors about a dangerous new virus in mainland China that the government was playing down. Terrified for her personal safety and career, she reached out to her favorite Chinese YouTube host, known for criticizing the Chinese government.
Within days, the host was telling his 100,000 followers that the coronavirus had been deliberately released by the Chinese Communist Party. He wouldn’t name the whistle-blower, he said, because officials could make the person “disappear.”
By September, Dr. Yan had abandoned caution. She appeared in the United States on Fox News making the unsubstantiated claim to millions that the coronavirus was a bio-weapon manufactured by China.
Overnight, Dr. Yan became a right-wing media sensation, with top advisers to President Trump and conservative pundits hailing her as a hero. Nearly as quickly, her interview was labeled on social media as containing “false information,” while scientists rejected her research as a polemic dressed up in jargon.
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Her evolution was the product of a collaboration between two separate but increasingly allied groups that peddle misinformation: a small but active corner of the Chinese diaspora and the highly influential far right in the United States.
How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing Coronavirus Media Sensation
Increasingly allied, the American far right and members of the Chinese
diaspora tapped into social media to give a Hong Kong researcher a vast
audience for peddling unsubstantiated pandemic claims.
Dr. Li-Meng Yan wanted to remain anonymous. It was mid-January, and Dr. Yan, a researcher in Hong Kong, had been hearing rumors about a dangerous new
virus in mainland China that the government was playing down. Terrified for her personal safety and career, she reached out to her favorite Chinese
YouTube host, known for criticizing the Chinese government.
Within days, the host was telling his 100,000 followers that the coronavirus had been deliberately released by the Chinese Communist Party. He wouldn’t name the whistle-blower, he said, because officials could make the person
“disappear.”
By September, Dr. Yan had abandoned caution. She appeared in the United
States on Fox News making the unsubstantiated claim to millions that the
coronavirus was a bio-weapon manufactured by China.
Overnight, Dr. Yan became a right-wing media sensation, with top advisers to President Trump and conservative pundits hailing her as a hero. Nearly as
quickly, her interview was labeled on social media as containing “false
information,” while scientists rejected her research as a polemic dressed
up in jargon.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Her evolution was the product of a collaboration between two separate but
increasingly allied groups that peddle misinformation: a small but active
corner of the Chinese diaspora and the highly influential far right in the
United States.