The U.S.'s penchant for manufacturing lies will only expedite the bankruptcy of its own credibility, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in response to an earlier media report exposing former U.S. President Donald Trump's clandestine CIA campaign to influence public opinion in China.

Trump authorized the secret program in 2019, which involved using bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about the Chinese government, Reuters reported.

The revelation echoed CIA Director Willian Burns' recent remarks about investing more resources in intelligence activities against China, once again proving the U.S. has been systematically and plannedly spreading false information related to China for years, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

This has become an important means of the U.S.'s cognitive warfare against China, he added.

Wang also made references to U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul's comments that the U.S. government is the greatest disseminator of misinformation in the history of the world.

The United States often accuses other countries of spreading false information, but in reality, the U.S. itself is the true source of misinformation, Wang said, adding that such efforts cannot halt China's progress but will only further tarnish the image of the U.S. government.

(Cover: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin speaks at a press conference, Beijing, March 14, 2024. /CFP)