EU Report Reveals China's Use of AI for Disinformation and Harassment
The EU's external action service documented China's systematic use of AI to generate disinformation and deepfakes targeting political opponents, amplifying state narratives, and operating covert media networks disguised as independent sources across 108 domains in 15 languages.
What happened
The European External Action Service released its fourth annual report on foreign information manipulation interference (FIMI) on March 17, 2026, documenting China's use of AI tools to produce videos and images at scale.
The report found that China uses AI to obscure content sources, customize narratives, and amplify disinformation depicting the EU as a US puppet and generating deepfake videos showing Spanish government officials and the NGO Safeguard Defenders in fabricated scenarios of corruption.
China operates a network of approximately 12 websites appearing independent but linked to Chinese state media, using AI to mask content sources and present state-funded articles as original content. A separate campaign known as 'Paperwall' expanded to at least 108 domains targeting 40 additional countries in 15 languages, including content from Russian state media.
Reported impact
The campaign aims to increase cognitive legitimacy of narratives while obscuring their Chinese origins and spreading Beijing's state narrative globally.
China combines disinformation with more aggressive tactics including intimidation and harassment of critics, according to the report.
Index analysis
The AI-generated content contains technical flaws including uncorrected errors and exposed AI prompts visible on websites, and abnormally large content volumes published in short timeframes.
Generated content and original Chinese state media content typically publish nearly simultaneously, indicating automated workflows.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.