China’s 50 Cent Army is Allegedly Being Used to Manipulate Online Public Opinion in South Korea

It appears that China’s “50 Cent Army” has turned its attention on South Korea to help manipulate online public opinion to be favorable towards President Moon:

On February 27, 2020, an online post titled “Chinagate” emerged, causing a controversy.  A self-described Joseonjok (ethnic Korean who migrated to Northeast China prior to 1945 and their descendants) Chinese claimed that “Joseonjok Chinese and Chinese students in South Korea are using social network services to manipulate public opinion on online communities and portals using online comments and other methods” and that “the Moon Jae-in administration and the ruling party are controlled by China.”  The person also posted, “Most of the people who are mobilized for this systematic manipulation of public opinion are [Chinese] university students studying in South Korea, and all of the top-ranked comments on Naver and comments on women’s cafes go through our hands.” [Note: Naver is a popular portal in South Korea.]

Another post appeared later the same day, claiming “Don’t think it’s Koreans that drive online public opinion” and “as soon as ‘the impeachment of Moon Jae-in’ appeared as the Blue House petition, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which considers President Moon as part of it, became active and led 500,000 to support the ‘I support President Moon Jae-in’ petition in a period of two days.”

These posts were claims, but what followed caused a stir.

East Asia Research Center

I highly recommend reading the whole article at the link by Dr. Tara O. Remember the Moon administration is no stranger to manipulating online public opinion as demonstrated by the Druking Scandal prior to the last presidential election.