China's BBC Attacks Show Growing Sophistication in Propaganda, Report Says Jamie Tarabay, Bloomberg FacebookTwitterEmail China's attempts to discredit the BBC show an increased sophistication in tailoring propaganda for Western audiences, an Australian research group said Thursday. Chinese officials participated in a social media campaign against the BBC after it aired a report on Feb. 2 featuring Uighur women who alleged that detainees in camps in the province of Xinjiang were systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured. China's Foreign Ministry denied the allegations and accused the BBC of making a "false report." The ensuing weeks saw a spike in social-media activity from Chinese diplomats and state media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube criticising the BBC, said Jacob Wallis, a senior analyst at the International Cyber Policy Centre, which is under the umbrella of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI. He authored the report with researcher Albert Zhang.