Editor's note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

CNN published an anti-Chinese information provocation under the title "The people paying a heavy price for telling the truth about COVID in China." It describes those who've been detained on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble as so-called "truth-tellers."

This contentious term misleadingly implies that their online activities were unquestionably connected to the truth, which advances the outlet's narrative that the Communist Party of China (CPC) aggressively censored them as part of a cover-up. That cover-up, it's later suggested at the end of the article, is allegedly responsible for the loss of many lives and the global pandemic.

There are many double standards contained in the article which deserve to be called out in order to expose CNN's manipulative intentions. The most flagrant of these is that American social media platforms also crack down on COVID-19 disinformation, though they hypocritically allow such disinformation about China to proliferate on their sites.

Spreading unconfirmed reports about a suspected viral outbreak as well as manipulated media about first responders is equivalent to falsely yelling fire in a crowded movie theater. It provokes panic and therefore endangers the public's safety. These actions are therefore highly irresponsible.

Instead of acknowledging this like CNN should have done if it was a serious news outlet, the company resorted to information warfare by describing those suspects as "truth-tellers." The purpose in doing so is to normalize suspected illegal – or at the very least, objectively irresponsible – activities in order to encourage others to follow suit as well.

This amounts in practice to an effort to exploit naive individuals into functioning as hybrid war proxies in the U.S.' self-professed strategic competition with China. It's no different than if a non-American media outlet encouraged Americans to do something similar under the pretext of "truth-telling."

A relevant example would be if a foreign outlet of similarly global renown as CNN also employed the contentious "truth-teller" term when describing those who insist that last year's presidential election was stolen. American social media companies sometimes ban users for alleging that and similar narratives, which is their right as private companies. So too does China have the right to crack down on COVID-19 disinformation, though, in accordance with its laws.

While CNN implies that the Chinese "truth-tellers" are citizen journalists, they wouldn't hold that same standard for those who claim the election was stolen and/or rioted on January 6.

Another double standard relates to CNN's unofficial timeline of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. This is meant to make it seem like the CPC covered up the pandemic. In reality, however, China took prompt and responsible action, even if some of it wasn't publicly disclosed at the time. This is normal, though, since states don't always immediately disclose sensitive information about developing issues of certain concern.

For instance, it's usually only after the facts have been conclusively determined that the Western public finds out that their governments were carrying out anti-terrorism and counter-intelligence investigations, not right away.

The very publication of that unofficial timeline was provocative, however. It would be the same as if a foreign outlet of similarly global renown as CNN published a timeline that gives credence to pro-Trump "truth-tellers'" claims about last year's alleged election fraud. Neither version of events is official, and they both rely on unconfirmed and sometimes outright false information.

CNN isn't engaging in journalism with its article about "truth-tellers," but in the art of information warfare intended to provoke domestic problems inside of China as well as destroy the country's international reputation through malicious innuendo and claims about a cover-up.

The double standards on full display debunk the purportedly journalistic intentions of CNN's latest anti-Chinese information provocation. The outlet isn't interested in establishing the facts, but in manipulating them in order to manufacture the false narrative that the CPC covered up the COVID-19 outbreak and is therefore responsible for the deaths and global pandemic that followed.

The timing of this article curiously coincides with increasing international scrutiny of the U.S.' disastrous mishandling of the pandemic, which has made America ground zero for global infections. CNN might therefore have wanted to distract the world from this inconvenient fact.

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