Empires of lies – The China Project

The Overseas Ministry, its pique evident in its pithy selection of phrases and within the semi-hysterical tenor of its reply, responded in prime kind:

Info have confirmed again and again that the U.S. is an “empire of lies” by way of and thru. Even some within the U.S., reminiscent of Senator Rand Paul, acknowledged that the U.S. authorities is the best propagator of disinformation within the historical past of the world.

State wordsmiths set the tone and content material for propaganda, each within the unique and in translation. Though this was a diatribe crafted contained in the halls of the Overseas Ministry, it rapidly received the seal of approval of the official Xinhua Information Company which reproduced it verbatim and despatched it flying to key exterior media in its huge distribution system.

State media retailers such because the International Occasions — a nationalistic subsidiary of the Communist Occasion’s Folks’s Every day newspaper that’s devoted to indignant protection of world affairs in English and Chinese language, and the China Every day, a state-owned English publication which has a key function to play in “telling China’s story properly” to diplomats and different residents of China — added to the Overseas Ministry outrage with extra spittle-flecked phrases, however the Overseas Ministry’s time period “empire of lies” was a gem of assonance, a memorable rhetorical flourish. The time period is utilized in English in addition to in Chinese language, translated actually as 谎言帝国 huǎngyán dìguó, which echoes the outline “empire of hacking” (黑客帝国) that state media used to explain the U.S. after the Edward Snowden revelations of 2013. 

As if to buttress the notion that China trades in info whereas the U.S. shamefacedly lies, there’s even a half-hearted try and supply the “empire of lies” jab — to Rand Paul, a U.S. senator representing Kentucky.

The place does ‘empire of lies’ come from? 

The Overseas Ministry made the maybe comprehensible mistake of conflating libertarian father with libertarian son, for it’s père Ron Paul, a doctor and former congressman from Texas, not Rand Paul, who launched the time period “empire of lies” as a descriptor for america in his 2008 e-book, “The Revolution: A Manifesto“

It’s additionally telling that the Chinese language media was cautious to carry solely half the Rand quote in query, which within the unique reads: “Reality is treason within the empire of lies.”

In China, the place fact is typically actually and legally be construed as treason in relation to criticizing Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 or the Communist Occasion or in shedding mild on sure historic occasions, the primary half of the quote cuts uncomfortably near residence.

In The Revolution: A Manifesto, Ron Paul attributes his pungent quote to George Orwell, with no clear quotation. (There is no such thing as a revealed proof that Orwell himself mentioned  “Reality is treason within the empire of lies.”)

So the place did China’s wordsmiths discover this pseudo-Orwellian gem? Empire of lies is traceable to Ron Paul’s 2008 e-book, and “the best propagator of disinformation” is attributable to his son Rand at a Could 2022 Senate listening to described the U.S. authorities as “the best propagator of disinformation in world historical past.”

However there’s one other potential supply for the empire of lies meme that’s even of extra instant relevance to China’s wolf warrior diplomats: On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin gave a speech asserting that his armies would invade Ukraine in what he referred to as a “a particular navy operation by which castigated the U.S. as an “empire of lies.” He went on to claim:

One can say with good cause and confidence that the entire so-called Western bloc shaped by america in its personal picture and likeness is, in its entirety, the exact same “empire of lies.”

Putin doesn’t credit score both Rand Paul or Ron Paul for the quote, however he deems it an American creation: “U.S. politicians, political scientists and journalists write and say {that a} veritable ‘empire of lies’ has been created inside america.”

This time period now has a lifetime of its personal in Russian media, and Chinese language media, which generally takes its cues from the Kremlin, echoes this, particularly on Ukraine-related issues. The U.S. has been tagged “an empire of lies” quite a few occasions within the final yr or so, generally in relation to spurious Russian propaganda about secret bio-labs, germ warfare, and COVID origins, but in addition in circumstances of documented deceit, reminiscent of within the run-up to the battle in Iraq.

Final yr, a cartoon entitled “Empire of Lies” ran within the International Occasions. Penned by Russian artist Vitaly Podvitski, whose work has appeared in Sputnik Information, RIA Novosti, and Channel One Russia, it portrays a tragic, hook-nosed Uncle Sam pouring poisonous ooze from a rubbish can labeled “lies” on Xinjiang to discredit China.

One other Russian, Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov, can be keen on the time period. He described all the West as an “empire of lies” on Chinese language state broadcaster CCTV information final month, amongst different events.

There are a number of books with the title “Empire of Lies.” largely within the realm of dystopian fiction, however there’s additionally a political critique of U.S. international coverage revealed in March this yr by right-wing contrarian and economist Paul Craig Roberts who factors to 9/11, COVID-19 and the battle in Ukraine as examples of key U.S. deceptions.

There’s one other potential supply of the endurable and enduring “empire of lies” meme, as ironic as it’s unlikely. It’s the title of a e-book about China, revealed in 2008 by the erudite French-American writer Man Sorman who first visited China in 1967: Empire of Lies: The Reality about China within the Twenty-First Century.

Writing again when the Western honeymoon in China was not but over, Sorman argued the West conferred better legitimacy on China than did the Chinese language themselves, which supplies an perception into why the Chinese language media likes to cite foreigners a lot.

The unsure origin of the phrase “empire of lies” provides one other Orwellian twist to this already twisted matter. It actually feels like one thing Orwell would have mentioned or might have mentioned, and you should buy T-shirts (from libertarian-orineted shops) with the quote on it attributed to Orwell, however there isn’t a dependable scholarship that confirms Orwell mentioned or wrote it.   

What would the human truth-seeking missile referred to as Orwell need to say a few quote attributed to him that he by no means made, that has now gone around the globe a number of occasions, getting reinvigorated and repurposed by authoritarian governments in Russia and China?