• Chinese state media promoted a conspiracy theory about the US stealing aid for earthquake victims.
• The claim was picked up by Iran and pro-Russia influencers, reaching over a million users on social media.
• The false claims were based on US soldiers helping to distribute humanitarian aid in Turkey.

Back in February, Chinese state media was boasting of how Beijing had stepped up to provide Turkey with much-needed humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the deadly February 6 earthquake that killed tens of thousands in Turkey and northern Syria, including what an English-language arm of the Communist Party described as "20 metric tons of urgently needed cotton tents."

But by March, state-run news service China Radio International was shocked that Chinese aid ended up in Turkey, and instead claimed in an anti-American conspiracy theory that aid had been stolen from a separate humanitarian shipment to Syria. This claim has since been picked up by the Iranian government and pro-Russia influencers, reaching hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter, Facebook, and Telegram.

According to the state-run China Radio International, not even the most cynical anti-imperialist "would have thought that the US military would even seize the relief supplies sent by China to the earthquake zone in Syria!"

The article, posted in Turkish, points readers to a photo posted by the US Army on its Instagram page earlier this month that shows an American soldier in Turkey carrying humanitarian aid,...

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