The people China-linked Twitter accounts aimed at before Hong Kong

Twitter removed nearly 1,000 accounts last month, describing them as the “most active” of a network of 200,000 accounts suspended as part of a “significant state-backed information operation” by Beijing against Hong Kong protesters. Analysis of tweets from those accountsby the think-tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute has found that these accounts didn’t start their activities with the eruption of a political protest movement in Hong Kong against a hated extradition bill.

ASPI found that only about 112 of the 936 accounts publicly identified by Twitter substantially focused on Hong Kong, accounting for 1,600 tweets in total. But before tweets about Hong Kong saw an uptick in April of this year, they focused on other people the Communist Party of China deems opponents.

China’s most high-profile exiled businessman, the property tycoon also known as Miles Kwok, has been based in the United States since 2017. He left China after a close associate was arrested for corruption. From New York, he frequently levels accusations of corruption against China’s ruling elite in televised interviews or on Twitter. Those he’s accused include the family of Wang Qishan, the former anti-corruption czar who is now vice president.

The campaign against Guo has been the most extensive by far, the ASPI report said. It appears to have begun on April 24, 2017 and continued till around July this year—around the time of a Wall Street Journal report (paywall) on a US firm’s allegation he had spied for China.  In total, at least 38,732 tweets from 618 accounts directly targeted him, some of which appeared to be prescheduled, said the report. The tweets were largely criticisms of either Guo’s character or cast aspersions on his relationships with anti-China US politicians such as Steve Bannon.

Source: The people China-linked Twitter accounts aimed at before Hong Kong — Quartz

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