Elon, I love you. Signed, China
Discourse Power | January 23, 2025
Greetings from Jerusalem,
Today’s Discourse Power features an investigation by me and my colleagues at Planet Nine’s Digital Intelligence Team (DIT). Last month, PRC diplomat Zhang Heqing, known for his wolf warrior outbursts and pro-CCP disinformation on X, updated his bio to "Inspector of X." Soon after, his account began posting AI-generated cultish praise for billionaire Elon Musk, now a key ally of President Donald Trump. The article explores how Musk’s growing influence in US politics, media, and business makes him an ideal conduit for Beijing’s global influence.
Also looking at disinformation, but this time on Bluesky, a decentralized microblogging platform created by the founder of Twitter that has enormous potential for research on disinformation and countering it. Based on an independent study we carried out at Planet Nine, Noa Rozman and I investigate "PortuBots", a Portuguese-speaking bot network and political disinformation on Bluesky. We were privileged to publish it on the excellent
Substack.Lastly, Jason Brodsky of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and I examine China's direct and indirect support for the Houthis, offering recommendations for the incoming Trump administration on how to respond. You can read our analysis in the Atlantic Council's New Atlanticist.
Thank you for reading,
Tuvia
Elon, I love you. Signed, China
Musk's sway over US media and politics, and his ties to China turn a tool that once spooked Beijing into one it can wield
By Tuvia Gering, Planet Nine
If you’ve been tracking Chinese elite politics since Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping’s rise to power, you are likely well-acquainted with the making of his cult of personality.
Now, however, it seems the “People’s Leader” has a rival: Twitter/X owner, the richest person on the planet, and since November one of the closest allies of the newly appointed US President, Elon Musk.
Planet Nine’s Digital Intelligence Team has developed and deployed in-house automated modules to track Chinese disinformation campaigns leading up to the US presidential election and the post-election period.
In December, we identified unusual activity on the X account of PRC diplomat Zhang Heqing, China's Cultural Counsellor at the Islamabad embassy and head of its cultural center. Known for ties to state-run information operations, Zhang's account began posting effusive, almost cult-like praise for Musk, dubbing himself the "Inspector of X."
To understand why a mid-level Chinese propagandist in Central Asia would devote his time to a microblogging site that is banned in the mainland, we must first consider the CCP’s exploitation of Western social media for “telling the China story well.”
Soft Words, Sharp Bites
After its late adoption of internet applications, China eventually began “nailing the Jell-O to the wall," as quipped former President Bill Clinton, who’d underestimated its resolve to control public opinion in the new medium.
The first steps were taken in 2004 when the CCP unveiled a strategy to enhance Beijing’s foreign-directed propaganda. It established a central leading small group to coordinate these efforts and defined policies for safeguarding national security and social stability.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics brought international scrutiny to China's human rights record, prompting the country's leaders to emphasize improving its global standing. Then-leader Hu Jintao adopted political scientist Joseph Nye's "soft power" concept and launched a multibillion-dollar "Great External Propaganda Campaign" the following year.
Since 2009, "Twitter revolutions" in Moldova, Iran, and elsewhere have demonstrated to Beijing the effectiveness of mobile-enabled microblogging in mobilizing protests and igniting political movements.
When Chinese netizens employed similar tactics, culminating in the Urumqi riots that July, the CCP unrolled the bans on foreign and domestic microblogging platforms. Yet, this didn’t stop state-run platforms from launching Twitter accounts in the subsequent months.
Xi Jinping observed these developments first-hand while acting as vice president overseeing the 2008 Olympics. Soon after he became General Secretary, in August 2013, Xi addressed the National Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference in Beijing, where he highlighted the significance of "discourse power" and the necessity of "telling the China story well." Five years later, at the Central Foreign Affairs Work Conference in Beijing, Xi introduced his "Thought on Diplomacy," outlining principles for “struggle” in a more proactive foreign policy.
Consequently, China's strategic communication leaned more heavily on "borrowing a boat out to sea" and "using international friends" to amplify pro-China voices, often by acquiring foreign media, distributing paid content, and exploiting platforms like Twitter. The number of Chinese diplomats on Twitter surged from only 17 in 2018 to over 200 by 2020.
This period saw China’s diplomatic corps and party-state media adopting "wolf warrior diplomacy," characterized by provocative rhetoric and undiplomatic outbursts online and offline toward any perceived slight.
And slights were many, with mounting global criticism over issues like Xinjiang, Hong Kong protests, and the Sino-US trade war, and China's lack of transparency regarding COVID-19 origins and its strict "zero Covid" isolation further strained international goodwill.
Empirical data suggests that wolf warrior diplomacy has boosted online engagement with Chinese sources on Twitter. This may reflect an awareness among Chinese propagandists of the well-documented negativity bias (“if it bleeds, it leads”). It could also be a reaction to rising nationalist sentiments at home, and it resonated with audiences in non-Western countries who hold negative views of Washington.
Beijing's assertiveness may have garnered the support of nationalists at home but undermined Xi’s directive to present a "credible, lovable, and respectable" China. Not only has it strained relations with the West - but it also brought to light the risks of PRC-backed disinformation. For example, Twitter's 2019 suspension of 200,000 Chinese-linked accounts and labeling of party-state accounts in 2020 reduced their impact.
The demotion of the “Wolf Warriors” poster boy, former Deputy Director of the Information Department Zhao Lijian, has fueled speculation about the "extinction" of this type of Chinese diplomacy. Yet, despite these setbacks, the CCP's external propaganda struggles have continued, and pugnacious diplomats are still a fixture on foreign platforms such as X, Facebook, and TikTok.
But few are as persistent as Zhang Heqing.
Lone Wolf Attack
Interestingly, it was Zhao Lijian who introduced Zhang Heqing to Twitter in February 2019, when the latter joined him at the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad as a Cultural Counsellor. Zhang launched his account in May 2020 and now boasts 416,000 followers and counting.
Likely inspired by his colleague, Zhang made headlines in June 2021 by giving a literal middle finger to China’s “enemies” in a post, embracing the “wolf warrior” image attributed to him and his peers.
Shortly before that, he irked his host country as well with a video of a dancing Chinese influencer of a Muslim ethnic minority captioned with the exoticized, essentialized trope: "Off your hijab, let me see your eyes. #Xinjiang dance."
In the years since and up to the present, whenever a Chinese state-led disinformation campaign was uncovered, you’d be sure to find Zhang at its center:
In April 2022, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) identified Zhang’s Twitter account as sharing anti-Ukrainian Russian propaganda within a pro-CCP inauthentic network. It was likely linked to Spamouflage, a multi-year disinformation campaign attributed to China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).
In October 2022, Zhang was featured in an ASPI report for promoting “frontier influencers,” that is, China-based and pro-CCP ethnic-minority social media personalities. Like the “off your hijab” dancer, it primarily includes younger women from the frontier autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia.
In August 2023, the Atlantic Council's DFRLab identified Zhang's account as a key disseminator of China-backed COVID-19 conspiracy theories, including claims that the virus originated at a US bio-lab in Fort Detrick (based on Soviet "active measures" from the 1980s that falsely linked AIDS to the same bio-lab). The study discovered that Zhang's account was, in fact, so central, that removing it would have significantly disrupted the spread of these narratives across the network.
Recently, Voice of America and DoubleThink Lab revealed that Zhang was the only Chinese official whose posts were amplified by an inauthentic cryptocurrency group.
While drafting this article, scrolling through just 24 hours of Zhang’s feed offers a vivid snapshot of the pro-CCP disinformation landscape in real time. It’s the Mos Eisley of X, inundated with Spamouflage bots, party-state media accounts, fringe reporters favored by autocratic regimes, self-proclaimed “MAGA-Communists,” racist trolls, foreign influencers, “useful idiots” singing from the CCP’s songsheet, hyper-nationalist Chinese machismo, and tacky posts generated with AI. Lots and lots of AI.
State-backed actors have used models like ChatGPT for covert operations and propaganda, and China is no exception. During the devastating LA wildfires in January, which displaced 200,000 people and destroyed 12,000 buildings, Zhang repeatedly shared posts framing the tragedy as “political negligence” and a “man-made disaster.”
One video Zhang retweeted from a suspected Spamouflage account features a horrifying scene of a woman trapped in a burning house. However, Planet Nine revealed that the footage was originally a DIY Halloween decoration tutorial. Another post included a video of the wildfire that Newsmeter later confirmed to be AI-generated.
Zhang’s account is remarkably prolific, producing over 290,000 posts since May 2020, or an average of 170 per day, and many appear automated or scheduled. We assess with high confidence based on syntax, language patterns, and other indicators, that they were generated using OpenAI models or their Chinese equivalents, though independent confirmation is difficult.
Long Live Comrade Musk
According to the Ghost Archive of Zhang Heqing’s X page, in early December he updated his bio from a cultural counselor at the Embassy and director of the Chinese Cultural Center to the simpler “Chinese. Personal views.” By December 12, it changed again to “Inspector on X. Retiree,” before finally settling on “Inspector on X. Personal views” by December 26.
It is unclear if Zhang has truly retired from an official capacity. Posts on Chinese social media show Zhang hosting a luncheon at the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan on December 24, 2024, after his alleged retirement, as part of a series of cultural events commemorating the 131st anniversary of Mao Zedong's birth.
And what insights did X’s self-appointed inspector bring to the platform? Alongside his routine bot-like garble and anti-Westernism, Zhang offered effusive praise for Elon Musk in more than 30 posts between December 10 and January 15, elevating him to the status of a "visionary tech titan" and "global icon" of near-mythical proportions, “synonymous with genius."
The mid-level Chinese official’s posts meticulously traced Musk’s “remarkable” journey from humble beginnings to billionaire status, celebrating his “self-reliance” and innovation as defining attributes of his success.
Musk’s family life also draws Zhang’s admiration. A photo of Musk with his daughter is described as “a heart-melting sight,” his “cute and lively” son is cheered in a video, while multiple posts praise Maye Musk and her critique of the media’s “unfair treatment” of her son.
Musk’s foibles earn Zhang’s reverence too. “He’s the joker in the billionaire deck!” Zhang quips while hailing Musk’s influence as rooted in “His ability to shine a light on hidden matters. In one of his more bizarre comments, Zhang muses on Tesla’s humanoid robots: “If Elon Musk were an alien, he’d be the coolest one in the galaxy!”
This admiration can be partially explained by Musk's high level of popularity in China. In 2019, Musk’s professed “love for China” and the strategic move to open Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai, earned him an offer of permanent residency by Premier Li Keqiang.
His numerous ventures have sparked widespread interest and reverence among Chinese consumers and technology enthusiasts. Musk's mother, Maye, an accomplished dietitian, model, and author, has built a cult following in her own right, with over half a million followers on Xiaohongshu.
While the Musk family’s stories may resonate with Zhang or the people behind his account, less credulous explanations would be that the propaganda account bandwagons on Musk’s vast influence to amplify pro-China narratives on X and drive engagement. “He’s not just on 𝕏, he’s basically the 𝕏-factor!” Zhang remarked when Musk surpassed the 211 million followers milestone on January 2, 2025.
Zhang not only “borrows the boat” but also its captain. In the first tweets of the personality cult series on December 10 and 11, Zhang amplified Musk’s interviews highlighting China’s economic achievements and global leadership. “Musk's words are more than just praise; they're an acknowledgment of China's stance in the global arena,” Zhang wrote.
In line with CCP talking points on "peaceful development," Zhang highlighted how Musk had praised China for its focus on internal affairs, "non-aggressive" stance, and "impressive architecture", which he'd described as "far more stunning than that of the US".
Crucially, Zhang’s propaganda account aligns with a man who wields significant influence over American politics and media.
The world’s richest man was the largest donor in the 2024 election cycle, contributing at least $277 million to support Trump’s re-election. It was a small price to pay for securing a pivotal role in the incoming administration, where he will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The bespoke "special government employee" position allows Musk to retain his private business interests while wielding significant influence over government operations, potentially slashing trillions in expenditures.
Since November, Musk has been closely shadowing Trump, attending meetings with foreign dignitaries at the UN, while presidents and leaders hang onto his every tweet. Reports now indicate he may even have office space in the White House.
Musk’s proximity to the president and strong business ties with China make him an ideal conduit for Beijing’s interests. Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory is responsible for nearly 40% of Tesla’s global deliveries, and Chinese manufacturing is a cornerstone of his EV empire.
Following multiple engagements with senior Chinese officials, Musk has voiced positions closely aligned with Beijing’s stance on key policy issues. In May 2023, during a meeting with now-deposed Foreign Minister Qin Gang, he affirmed Tesla’s opposition to "decoupling."
By the following year, Musk reversed his position and publicly opposed a proposed quadrupling of tariffs on Chinese EVs, diverging from Trump’s preferred policy. Much to the delight of Chinese propagandists, Musk called Taiwan an "integral part" of China in September, comparing it to Hawaii, and last month he torpedoed a bipartisan spending bill that included provisions on China, prompting their removal from the final version.
Finally, CCP propagandists are likely aware of Musk's incendiary potential to undermine the integrity of the media landscape and liberal democracy. In an ironic twist, on December 20, Zhang broke the praising streak and wrote: “Since helping Trump get elected as president, Musk has become even more of a ‘wolf warrior’ for America,” adding that “X has turned into his personal battlefield for safeguarding American interests.“
Since buying Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, Elon Musk has significantly reshaped the platform in his image. He made significant staff reductions, including eliminating entire teams in charge of content moderation and misinformation control. These changes have led to a surge in hate speech and misinformation on the platform, enabling accounts like Zhang's to thrive.
In April 2023, X removed "state-affiliated" labels from Chinese party-state media accounts, boosting engagement for disinformation sources linked to China, Russia, and Iran by up to 70%, according to NewsGuard. Furthermore, X has allowed propaganda networks based in China, Russia, and Iran to operate despite bans on other platforms.
Despite his self-identification as a "free speech absolutist," Musk's approach to free speech on X has been selective. In May 2023, ahead of Turkey’s presidential election, X capitulated to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's request and censored access to accounts critical of his party. In contrast, when faced with content removal requests from Brazil's Supreme Court concerning accounts spreading misinformation about the election, X initially resisted compliance.
Drawing on a century of CCP United Front tactics, Chinese propagandists seek to divide their “enemies” from within. Recognizing the impact of Musk’s controversial statements, they possibly see his rhetoric as a means to deepen fractures in American society and diminish the US’s global influence.
In Europe, leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron have accused Musk of interfering in their political affairs, particularly through his support for right-wing parties like Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued veiled rebukes at Musk for "spreading lies and misinformation" about child sex grooming gangs in the UK.
Domestically, Musk has been splitting the MAGA movement. His support for highly skilled immigration and alleged conflicts of interest concerning China and regulations have caused him to publicly clash with key Trump allies. For example, Trump strategist Steve Bannon called Musk "truly evil" and promised to reduce his power in the President-elect’s inner circle.
On January 8, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would adopt X’s community-driven moderation system, replacing fact-checking and mirroring Elon Musk’s approach. This development was noted by Zhang’s account. Simultaneously, reports suggest Beijing may seek Musk’s assistance with TikTok's divestment.
TikTok dismissed the reports as "pure fiction," whereas Musk indicated this week that he would much rather see the ban on his platform X lifted in the mainland, but the episode does hint at the future of US geopolitics under Trump 2.0.
Considering that the soon-to-be-trilionnaire Musk is acting as Trump's "shadow president" and a social media tycoon while strengthening his commercial ties with China, Zhang Heqing's “retirement” appears to be ill-timed - For the next four years, propagandists, wolf warriors, and agents of chaos the world over will have their hands full.
Tuvia Gering is a cyber-threat intelligence analyst at Planet Nine’s Digital Intelligence Team, a visiting fellow at the Israel-China Policy Center at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author, are based in good faith on the results of the described studies, and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the author’s affiliated organizations. The data and facts presented in this article may not be accurate or complete.