The United States of america and China traded jabs, accusing each other of disinformation.
According to Beijing's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a US State Department report accusing China of growing disinformation tactics is "in itself disinformation.
Ministry retaliated after the US State Department issued a damning report this week accusing the Chinese government of stepping up attempts to control information and propagate propaganda and disinformation that supports "digital authoritarianism" in China and worldwide.
Did you read this?
The Global Engagement Centre report, released on Thursday, claims that China spends billions of dollars annually on foreign information manipulation and warns that Chinese President Xi Jinping has "significantly expanded" efforts to "shape the global information environment."
It also emphasized the United States' concerns about China as a major military adversary and a critical foe in the struggle for ideas and global disinformation.
China retaliated days later, claiming that the relevant center of the US State Department, which concocted the report, is engaged in propaganda and infiltration in the name of 'global engagement', adding that it is a source of disinformation and the command center of 'perception warfare.'
Using the wars in Iraq and Syria as examples and US claims alleging human rights violations in China's Xinjiang, the ministry asserted that the US is "an 'empire of lies' through and through."
The ministry said that No matter how the US tries to pin the label of 'disinformation' on other countries, more and more people in the world have already seen through the US's ugly attempt to perpetuate its supremacy by weaving lies into 'emperor's new clothes' and smearing others.