Report: Pentagon Conducted Covert Anti-Vaccine Campaign to Destabilize China

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military initiated a covert campaign to counter China’s rising influence in the Philippines, a nation heavily impacted by the virus.

This secret operation, previously undisclosed, aimed to create skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and aid provided by China. Through fake internet accounts impersonating Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts turned into an anti-vaccine campaign. Posts on social media criticized the quality of face masks, test kits, and China’s Sinovac vaccine, the first vaccine available in the Philippines.

Reuters found around 300 accounts on X (formerly Twitter) matching descriptions provided by former U.S. military officials involved in the Philippines operation. These accounts, created in the summer of 2020, used the hashtag #Chinaangvirus, meaning “China is the virus” in Tagalog.

After Reuters brought these accounts to X’s attention, the social media company removed them, identifying them as part of a coordinated bot campaign based on activity patterns and internal data.

The U.S. military’s anti-vaccine campaign began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before being terminated in mid-2021. The Pentagon tailored the propaganda campaign to local audiences in Central Asia and the Middle East, spreading fear about China’s vaccines among Muslims and amplifying the claim that China’s shots could be forbidden under Islamic law due to the presence of pork gelatin.

The program started under former President Donald Trump’s administration and continued into Joe Biden’s presidency, despite warnings from social media executives. The Biden administration issued a directive in the spring of 2021 banning the anti-vaccine effort, disparaging vaccines from other rivals as well, and initiated an internal review.

Although there is no evidence that the Pentagon targeted Americans with propaganda, it engaged in secret efforts to discredit China’s vaccine in the developing world. The U.S. military’s actions have sparked outrage among some health experts and aid workers in the Philippines.

The Pentagon’s covert propaganda campaign has drawn criticism for potentially undermining public trust in government health initiatives. By spreading misinformation about Chinese vaccines, the campaign could have jeopardized efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the internal review and scrutiny, the Pentagon’s clandestine influence operations are set to continue. Contractors like General Dynamics IT, responsible for the anti-vaccine campaign, have received multimillion-dollar contracts to provide covert influence services for the military.