The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | November 15th, 2023: China's Disinformation Campaign & Russia's Staggering Military Losses

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     A new report investigates a vast CCP backed disinformation network operating for years within the U.S.    A UK intelligence report details the staggering losses Putin’s military has suffered in Ukraine.    Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.     Email: [e-mail].  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. It's Wednesday, November 15th. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. As all eyes turned to San Francisco for today's summit between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, we dive into a disturbing report detailing a CCP-backed disinformation network operating for years within the U.S.

Later, I'll bring you a UK intelligence report detailing the staggering losses that Putin's military has suffered in Ukraine. But first, our afternoon spotlight. We're learning more about a years-long Chinese government intimidation campaign aimed at silencing critics of the CCP within the U.S. The network trades in disinformation and threats of violence, which they direct at everyday Americans in an effort to silence global dissent and shape the public narrative regarding the regime of Xi Jinping. An investigation by CNN, which reviewed a large number of court documents and public

disclosures by social media companies, reveals a brazen effort by agents of the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, to terrorize Americans through online harassment campaigns. The shadowy online network, which is known as spammiflage, or a, a code named Dragon Bridge, largely targets dissonance of CCP rule in the U.S. and abroad, such as Chinese-born journalists and human rights activists. The highly organized effort is allegedly designed to foster a perpetual state of fear and paranoia among the American public. The network often engages in personal attacks against specific individuals, accusing them of being traitors or racists.

In the case of one victim who participated in an anti-communism's Zoom event infiltrated by the CCP network in 2021, the trolls threatened that they would, quote, die miserably. Social media companies such as Meta, Google, YouTube, and X are struggling to stay ahead of the incessant online harassment due to the sheer volume of posts and scale of the network. While private researchers discovered the Chinese operation more than four years ago, the U.S. government and Meta were only able to publicly confirm its ties to the CCP, in the last several months. Now, the group also engages in sophisticated disinformation campaigns

that aim to deflect from the controversial actions of their own regime by painting the U.S. government and American companies as to true villains on the global stage. The network targets any issue that could, in their eyes, threaten the reputation or interests of the CCP. This included an attempt to trigger protests regarding a rare earth's processing facility in Texas, and a smear campaign targeting an unnamed U.S. manufacturing company. Now, as an aside, you may ask, why would China aim their spammiflage at a Texas

rare earth's processing facility? I'm glad you asked. Xi's regime has been busy over the past decade and a half attempting to build a monopoly on rare earth and critical minerals, particularly on the processing side. Now, lithium, cobalt, and a variety of others, many of the same elements that are necessary to build the electric vehicle batteries that the U.S. and Europe imagined will be the entire future of transportation as they work to shut down fossil fuels. So taking the long view, China set out to control that market one day. As part of the effort, they've realized that the more that they can influence regulations and policies in the U.S. to shut down mining and processing, well, the easier it will be to

control the global marketplace. Xi's regime took a very pragmatic approach, funding, supporting, promoting environmental and activist groups intent on stopping the exploration, mining, or processing of rare earth and critical minerals, and also spamiflaging local governments, city councils, and others to promote environmental policies that play into China's strategy. Now, phosphate is a good example of this. Phosphate is necessary for agriculture. It's a key component of fertilizer, not to mention it's also a critical component for EV batteries. The U.S.'s primary competitors in the phosphate market include Russia, Morocco, and, of course, China. All three have worked hard to influence U.S. local, state, and federal policy towards phosphate,

with China having the most resources via their spammoflage program. Now, other accounts linked to the spammoflage network, tried to leverage the second anniversary of George Floyd's death to sow further seeds of division within the American public. These accounts posted things like, quote, racism is an indelible shame on American democracy, and that the U.S. committed, quote, cultural genocide against the Indians. The group also sent out instructions to the network to, quote, work on 22 U.S. midterm elections and criticize American democracy.

Now, there's a surprise. Representatives for META said the group's tactics and themes, are always evolving. The sprawling operation, largely run out of Beijing, seeks to tightly control online discussions by molding them into the preferred narrative of the CCP. They operate thousands of accounts at any given time, flooding conversations on social media sites to drown out the posts of real users. Now, despite being based in China and operating largely online, the reach of this network is vast. According to court filings, and with flagrant disregard for American sovereignty. Two Chinese operatives were arrested for running an undeclared police

station on behalf of the CCP in New York City in April of this year. These CCP agents helped the regime locate a Chinese dissident living in the U.S. A total of 34 individual officers with China's Ministry of Public Security were named in a DOJ complaint reviewed by CNN. However, an FBI agent's Avidavit says the disinformation network involves hundreds of MPS officers operating across China. While social media companies and federal prosecutors have done their best to unmask the network by filing complaints against perpetrators of the campaigns, their location and the very nature of cybercrimes makes it difficult to stop. China, of course, denies that any such network exists.

A spokesperson for the CCP said it is a politically motivated smear against China. adding that, quote, China always respects the sovereignty of other countries, end quote. And I'm sure that's a comforting statement for the people of Taiwan. All right. Coming up after the break, a new intelligence report reveals the staggering number of casualties Putin's army has taken in Ukraine. I'll be right back. Welcome back. In a sobering update on the war in Ukraine, UK intelligence reveals the staggering human cost that the Russian military has faced since the start of the war. As the conflict nears its second year, British military intelligence reports over 300,000 Russian soldiers either killed or wounded, while tens of thousands more have deserted.

Now, for a little bit of context, the Soviet Union is estimated to have lost around 15,000 soldiers killed during its invasion of Afghanistan, and that happened over the course of 10 years. According to UK intelligence, this total does not include members of private military companies, like the Wagner Group. This aligns with U.S. estimates from back in August, which suggested nearly half a million Ukrainian and Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the war began. For their part, Russia's last official casualty report from the war's early stages acknowledged only over 6,000 fatalities.

That's what we would call a discrepancy. It's worth remembering that despite the seeming imbalance and casualties between the two opposing forces, Russians outnumbered Ukrainians on the battlefield almost three to one, and also as a significantly larger population from which to replenish its ranks. The UK's latest intelligence highlights not only the loss of Russian manpower, but also significant material losses. Russia has reportedly lost over 7,000 armored vehicles, nearly 2,500 main battle tanks, 93 aircraft, and 1,000,000.

300 or so artillery systems. Beyond the physical toll this war is having on Russian soldiers, their mental health on the battlefield also appears to be deteriorating. The British Ministry of Defense's latest report indicates up to 15% of Russian troops in Ukraine are using drugs, including amphetamines, heroin, and weed. These substances are reportedly widespread on the Russian front lines. This intelligence sheds light on the extensive human and material cost to Russia's enduring in Ukraine. offering a stark reminder of this war's brutal reality created by the Putin regime. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Wednesday, 15 November. If you have any questions or comments, reach out to me at PDB at thefirsttv.com.

I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.