Wu Qian can’t take her eyes off her phone. She tirelessly checks a dozen Chinese-language Telegram chat rooms, where thousands of conservative Chinese-Americans discuss news, politics – and sometimes QAnon conspiracies.
The 33-year-old Australian researcher, who asked that her real name not be used for this text , tiptoes her way through these far-right Chinese-American networks as an “undercover” infiltrator so as to know how disinformation flows through the diaspora.
“I see similar disinformation every single day,” says Ms Wu. “I am uninterested in it and curious to see the origin.”
She first noticed a surge of pandemic-related fake news within the overseas Chinese diaspora last summer as coronavirus swept the world .
To combat the spread of misinformation, she organised a gaggle of many volunteer fact-checkers to debunk these fake stories, but it didn’t take long for them to be overwhelmed by a replacement flood of misinformation about the US presidential election.
False claims of voter fraud, especially , spread like wildfire among extremely conservative Chinese immigrants in North America – a little but vocal group among diaspora communities.
“They are very politically active, and sometimes act collectively,” Ms Wu says.
Most members of those chat rooms are fervent Chinese-American supporters of former US President Donald Trump, identify as Christian and harbour strongly critical views of the Chinese Communist Party .
Ms Wu doesn’t post anything within the chat rooms. She only observes conversations. But other chat participants exchange tens of thousands of messages a day .
Donating to the Proud Boys
Last December, Ms Wu spotted a fundraising appeal to profit the Proud Boys – a far-right group designated by the Canadian government as a terrorist “neo-fascist organisation” – to hide medical expenses for members who were injured during a pro-Trump rally in Washington DC days earlier.
Who are Proud Boys and antifa?
The fundraising message was shared in multiple Telegram chat rooms within hours, reaching tens of thousands of Chinese-American conservatives.
“The more (donations), the merrier,” it read.
A dozen donors stated on the fundraising site that they’re Americans or Canadians of Chinese, Hong Konger or Taiwanese descent. Some commented in Chinese, wishing the injured Proud Boy members “a speedy recovery”.
In just a month, the fundraiser raised over $100,000 (£72,000), consistent with data provided by the whistle-blower site Distributed Denial of Secrets and reviewed by BBC News.
Of the nearly 1,000 individual contributions, quite 80% came from donors with Chinese surnames.
A Chinese-American woman who gave $500 told USA Today: “You need to understand how we feel – we came from China and that we managed to return here and that we appreciate it here so much .”
Rise of the Chinese-American right
Chinese immigrants within the US became a rising force in conservative politics.
Many are propelled to the right-wing political arena by their opposition to social action , a policy that aims to scale back inequality in education and employment, but is seen by some Chinese-Americans as damaging to the tutorial opportunities of their children and grandchildren.
Anti-communism beliefs also play a crucial role in mobilising right-wing Chinese Americans, as some had believed that the Trump administration’s hardline policy on China would apply pressure on Beijing and eventually cause the communist regime’s downfall.
During the pandemic, an unlikely alliance has emerged between the Chinese-speaking diaspora and American conservatives, as Washington and Beijing clash over the origins of Covid-19.
For strident opponents of Beijing, blaming China for not containing the virus within its borders is another opportunity to condemn the Chinese government.
For the American right, on the opposite hand, blaming China for the pandemic shifts focus from criticism of the Trump administration’s response and plays into the increasingly negative popular opinion of China.
The collaboration between former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Chinese exiled businessman Guo Wengui may be a case in point. The duo has been involved in a sprawling digital network that disseminates misinformation about election frauds, coronavirus vaccines and QAnon narratives on multiple social media platforms.
Chinese immigrants often consume news bypassing traditional media gatekeepers, consistent with non-profit organisation First Draft.
Due to language barriers and news habits, many within the Chinese diaspora tend to read news in closed or semi-closed social media spaces. As there’s already an existing trust among participants, the subscribers treat the knowledge with less scrutiny, giving rise to “misinformation echo chambers”.
“Once you’re exposed to the misinformation network, it’s hard to urge out,” Ms Wu tells the BBC.
‘We the People’
When pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol in January, emotions turned frantic both online and offline among the far-right members of the Chinese diaspora.
In the Telegram chat rooms, people were “beyond excited”, Ms Wu recalls. They were cheering for the rioters, and celebrating the “overturn” of the presidential election results.
media captionWhat the Proud Boys were doing before Trump’s speech that day
On an equivalent day, the fundraiser for the Proud Boys saw another spike in donations. A donor wrote in Chinese that “we must stop Satan from stealing the election”.
Members within the chat rooms had previously planned logistics for the pro-Trump rally in Washington DC, ordering T-shirts saying “Chinese-Americans for Trump” and booking buses from various cities to the nation’s capital.
On 6 January, quite 100 Chinese-Americans descended on Washington, joining other pro-Trump protesters during a march against the election outcome. Dozens within the crowd waved American flags, shouted pro-Trump slogans and held signs saying “End tyranny. End CCP (the Chinese Communist Party)”.
A protester told a conservative Chinese-American YouTuber that the day would mark a replacement era for Chinese-Americans. “We have truly become Americans. we’ve finally entered the American political arena ,” the man says in Mandarin.
It’s unclear what percentage of them went on to breach the Capitol. During a video that later went viral within the Chinese diaspora, it shows Congress in disarray because the Trump supporters flooded the building.
A man shouts the preamble to the US Constitution in Mandarin and English within the background: “We have occupied the Capitol… We the People. Great people!”
But Ms Wu thinks the Chinese-American protesters, though empowered by freedom and democracy within the US, were blinded by political misinformation and showed a scarcity of judgement.
‘Neither the US nor China wants us’
“They wanted to point out ‘the people’s power’ to the lawmakers,” she says, “but they had no idea what the results could also be .”
When large majorities of usa citizens began to condemn the attack on the US Capitol, the Telegram groups swiftly removed the message history associated with the riots.
Discussion of Trump’s claims has since subsided, but the chat rooms remain active, with members sharing conspiracy theories about the Covid vaccines and President Joe Biden’s alleged ties to China.
Many believe baseless claims that Biden is closely coordinating with China, or maybe controlled by Beijing, citing his son Hunter Biden’s previous business ties with Chinese companies.
When President Biden skipped a word during a speech touching upon China, Ms Wu recalls, some within the chat rooms concluded that was the US leader “sending a signal” to his handlers within the Chinese government.
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