Chinese media expand their presence in Ukraine’s occupied territories and promote Kremlin narratives, RSF says

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Chinese state and pro-government media outlets have steadily expanded their activities in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories (TOT), amplifying Kremlin narratives and helping to legitimise the occupation, according to the findings, presented in a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Flags of China and Russia. Illustrative image from open sources.

According to the human rights media organisation, one of the main conduits for Russian propaganda aimed at Chinese audiences is Lu Yuguang, the head of Phoenix TV’s Moscow bureau. Since 2022, he has regularly reported from the occupied territories, including Mariupol, Donetsk and other cities, adopting Kremlin rhetoric in his coverage by referring to Russia’s war against Ukraine as a “special military operation”.

RSF stresses that the journalist enjoys privileged access to the front line and the occupied territories, where independent journalists are rarely granted access. Meanwhile, Ukrainian journalists who remained under occupation have faced persecution and arrest. Although China does not officially recognise Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory, its media presence there continues to expand. As Vira Yastrebova, director of the Eastern Human Rights Group, pointed out, Chinese media actors frequently reproduce or reinforce Russian propaganda narratives.

The report also examines press tours to the occupied territories organised by Russia. In April 2026, the pro-Kremlin network SOVINTERN organised a nearly ten-day trip for foreign bloggers and journalists, including two participants from China. Occupation-controlled media widely covered the visit as supposed evidence of international interest in the occupied territories.

RSF also notes that in 2022, Dmitrii Maslak, a correspondent for the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, accompanied Russian forces during the siege of Mariupol. In 2023, a delegation from the Chinese media outlet April Media visited occupied Donetsk and Crimea, while Chinese blogger Zhu Haozheng has regularly published reports from the occupied territories since 2022, echoing Kremlin propaganda tropes, including by describing Ukrainians as “fascists”.

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Reporters Without Borders also highlights the active promotion of content produced by the Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik across China’s information space. According to the human rights organisation, by February 2025, Sputnik’s account on the Chinese social media platform Weibo had amassed nearly 12 million followers, while RT had around two million. Their posts systematically shift responsibility for Russia’s war onto the United States and NATO while reiterating key Kremlin narratives.

Another trend identified in the report is the growing cooperation between representatives of the occupation media and Chinese state information institutions. In 2025, for example, a representative of the Russian-established “Union of Journalists” in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region attended an international media industry exhibition in Beijing, where he announced plans to strengthen cooperation with Chinese partners.

“Even if limited in scale, the Chinese media presence in occupied Ukrainian territories represents a victory for Russian propaganda. Beijing provides the Kremlin with what it needs most: international legitimacy, the amplification of its media and help normalising the occupation. In return, Moscow opens the occupied territories to Chinese investment. Beijing and Moscow are advancing together politically, economically and in the information sphere to impose their narratives,” said Pauline Maufrais, RSF Regional Officer for Ukraine.

In conclusion, RSF stressed that the international community should pay closer attention to the activities of Chinese state media, which are increasingly incorporating Russian propaganda narratives into their coverage and disseminating them to global audiences.

Since 2022, Chinese state media have increasingly amplified Russian disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine. In particular, they have promoted claims by the Russian government alleging that the United States funded and developed biological weapons in Ukraine. These narratives were disseminated by the state broadcaster CCTV and in the newspapers People’s Daily and Global Times.

In late February 2022, a false claim circulated by CCTV alleging that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had fled Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, was viewed 510 million times on the Chinese platform Weibo and republished by 163 media outlets across the country.

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According to RSF, on at least two occasions between 4 and 6 April that year, CCTV and Global Times repeated the unfounded claim that Ukrainians had carried out the massacre in Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, despite satellite evidence showing that Russian forces had killed at least 400 civilians.

In early March 2022, the social media accounts of the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN also repeated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unfounded claim that “Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” had opened fire on Chinese students”.

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