The results of a recent investigation show that China plays a leading role in promoting the spread of conspiracy theories about Covid-19.

The results of a 9-month investigation by the Digital Legal Research Bureau (DFRL) of the Atlantic Council research organization, based on an analysis of millions of articles and social media posts, show that China leads the way.

Beijing has been fighting for weeks with top Republican leaders, including former Vice President Donald Trump, who has always seen nCoV as the "Chinese virus".

One day after the World Health Organization (WHO) identified Covid-19 as a pandemic, Zhao Lap Kien, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, published a series of late-night articles, launching a campaign to spread information.

"When was patient number 0 of the United States discovered?", Trieu Lap Kien posted on Twitter on March 12, 2020.

What happened next showed the power of China's global "information machine".

The Global Times news site and at least 30 Chinese diplomatic accounts, from France to Panama, helped push for information from Mr. Zhao.

The hashtags popular in Trieu Lap Kien's series were also viewed 314 million times on Chinese social networking platform Weibo.

Ten days after Zhao's first post, China's "global media engine" began to take off.

"Is the US government intentionally hiding the truth about Covid-19 with seasonal flu?" Asked an essay on China Radio International in March 2020.

In just a few days, different versions of this article appeared more than 350 times on Chinese state news sites, not only in Chinese, but also in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The Chinese Embassy in France also promoted this information on Twitter and Facebook.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China has always denied spreading the conspiracy theories about Covid-19.