LAWMAKER URGES COLLEAGUES TO REFUSE RECEIPT OF CHINESE COMMUNIST NEWSPAPER AT THE HAWAI‘I STATE CAPITOL FOLLOWING CHINESE DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN ABOUT MAUI WILDFIRES

News Release from Rep Gene Ward, R-Hawaii Kai, Sept 19, 2023

HONOLULU, HI – – Rep. Gene Ward (R-18 Hawaii Kai-Kalama Valley) expressed his concerns about China's influence in disseminating false information online as reported in Hawaii’s media about the Maui Wildfires, as well as his continued warning about his fellow lawmakers receiving the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda newspaper, the China Daily, being delivered straight to their Hawai‘i State Capitol offices.

In a meeting of the US Senate Judiciary Committee last week, experts revealed China's most recent act of using artificial intelligence to circulate false images and videos worldwide, which purported the Maui wildfire was caused by the U.S. government thru the use of a meteorological weapon. Representative Ward cautions that this new frontier of "psychological warfare" via social media presently goes largely unchecked and has the potential to wreak mass destruction to our society should it continue to run rampant, especially if AI’s ChatGPT is added to the equation.

Representative Ward was pleased to learn that the Chinese disinformation campaign has caught the attention of U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who questioned the panel of experts at last week's hearing, yet queries why we do not commit similar attention to Chinese propaganda being served on a silver platter to Hawaii's state government officials?

Presently, about a dozen of Hawaii's State Legislators have opted-in to receive the China Daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. “The spreading of knowingly false information should never be tolerated, let alone originating from a foreign adversary. It is crucial we remove hostile Chinese influence from our information sources and social media feeds about Maui Wildfires as well as in the halls of our Hawai‘i State Legislature,” Ward sated.

“If the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can convince some of our residents in Hawaii that it was the US Government’s weather services that created the Maui Wildfires, there is no telling what disinformation may be coming out of or about the State Legislature as long as our members are receiving the CCP owned newspaper delivered to their Capitol offices on a weekly basis,” Ward concluded.

---30---

CB: Just say no to propaganda