An adviser to the Chinese government has called for new laws to ban “fabricating and disseminating fake information online”, blaming the rampant disinformation on the internet for polarising Chinese public opinion... The former dean of the prestigious Peking University’s School of International Studies ... called on Beijing to introduce specific measures to “severely punish” those who create false information to “cause serious harm to society”... if not properly implemented, such a law could have a profound impact on journalistic activities in China by both domestic and foreign news outlets, given Beijing’s track record in press freedom... Beijing frequently uses accusations of fake news to take aim at foreign reporting it deems unfavourable... Foreign correspondents have reported receiving harassment and streams of vitriol on social media platforms over their reporting from the country’s legion of nationalistic trolls.
