Beijing hit back at Washington's slandering of China by spreading disinformation on Wednesday, saying the United States is the biggest source and spreader of false information in the world.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian made the remarks after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cited a US State Department report released last year as saying the Chinese government has invested billions of dollars to spread propaganda and twist the global information environment.

Blinken said at the third "Summit for Democracy" in Seoul on Monday that China bought cable TV platforms in Africa and used local subsidiaries to surreptitiously purchase media companies in Southeast Asia to run pro-China news.

"Hyping up democracy versus authoritarianism at the so-called 'Summit for Democracy' is a false narrative, while accusing China of spreading misinformation is in itself disinformation," Lin told a news conference.

China strongly deplores and firmly opposes Blinken's remarks, and has made solemn representations to the US side, Lin said.

Rhetoric denounced

Lin cited several examples, including chanting the "collapse of the Chinese economy", hyping up the "debt trap" under the Belt and Road Initiative, and labeling "forced labor" and "genocide" in Xinjiang, to prove that well-organized and well-planned moves for a long time to spread China-related disinformation is an important approach for Washington in the battle of perception against Beijing.

US politicians, including the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on multiple occasions, have acknowledged their covert tactics such as bribing the media to spread remarks that smear China, Lin said.

"Lies and conspiracy will only end up backfiring. The harder the US strives to scheme rumors and mislead the public, the clearer the international community will see the credibility deficit of the US," he said.

What will be left with is a notorious image that cannot be whitewashed, he added.

zhoujin@chinadaily.com.cn