They call themselves the Great Translation Movement but for obvious reasons they’d like to keep their identities anonymous. Still, they do seem to be getting some attention both outside China and within it where they are being criticized by state media as troublemakers working with foreign instigators.

The idea behind this is simple. Take some of the extreme sentiments that routinely appear on Chinese social media, translate them and post them on Twitter so the rest of the world can see what’s going on inside the Great Firewall of China.

Scores of screen-grabbed posts from China’s most popular social media platforms have been translated and shared on Twitter in recent weeks, offering Western audiences a rare glimpse into the Chinese internet.

Among those posts: a prominent military blog falsely claiming a Russian attack on a train station in Kramatorsk was actually carried out by Ukraine, a well known media commentator dismissing the atrocities in Bucha, and a vlogger with hundreds of thousands of followers using a misogynistic term for Ukraine.

The posts appear courtesy of anonymous Twitter users who say their aim is to expose Western audiences to the true extent of pro-Russian or nationalistic content on China’s heavily censored platforms…

China’s state media has lashed out against what it decries as “cherry picked content.” The overseas arm of the People’s Daily — the mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party — has claimed the translators behind the movement are guilty of attributing the “extreme remarks” of some netizens to the “whole country.”

Any time an autocracy accuses someone of being unfair, it’s because they’ve clearly touched a nerve. The unnamed administrator of the Great Translation Movement account on Twitter told CNN, “We want the outside world to at least know what is going on inside, because we don’t think there could be any change made from inside.” Looking at some of their recent content it’s not hard to see why the PRC is eager to denounce them. Here’s a recent one about China trying its best to control the narrative about Shanghai lockdowns.

Welcome to Zero Covid #Shanghai, where Rumors do not exist because they are Refuted everyday.

Everything is Perfect!
No Armed Police taking Control.
No one Committing Suicide.
No companies Forced To Shut Down.#Orwell
#1984#TheGreatTranslationMovement #大翻译运动#China pic.twitter.com/3cTeN1NEcx

— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动官方推号 (@TGTM_Official) April 13, 2022

Then there’s this creepy communist indoctrination video.

Indoctrination begins from young. Is the CCP greater, or the law greater?
Correct Answer To Memorize: Both are equally great, you cannot choose, it is the same as choosing between your mother and your father.#大翻译运动 #TheGreatTranslationMovement pic.twitter.com/9T24ycR4tP

— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动官方推号 (@TGTM_Official) April 10, 2022

Or this creepy communist propaganda video.

They are not bots. They use communist ideology to fight against the #COVID19 pandemic.#大翻译运动 #TheGreatTranslationMovement pic.twitter.com/YdA60X5tjg

— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动官方推号 (@TGTM_Official) April 8, 2022

Or these creepy banners hung up in Beijing.

AMOGUS

Ok seriously, they are taking George #Orwell as instructions now.#TheGreatTranslationMovement#大翻译运动#Beijing pic.twitter.com/Rz3e8oVLpv

— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动官方推号 (@TGTM_Official) April 10, 2022

They’ve also been translating things like this letter from someone facing food shortages in Shanghai. This is written by someone who is clearly not trying to claim everyone in Shanghai is starving but he’s saying that many people are and that if even 1% of the population are in that situation it’s hundreds of thousands of people who are running out of food.

Post exposing the real situations under #shanghai 's #COVID lockdown is getting systematically removed from all social media platforms in China#TheGreatTranslationMovement #大翻译运动 pic.twitter.com/PK93rIoL1Q

— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动官方推号 (@TGTM_Official) April 9, 2022

But a lot of the content is just translations of things people are saying on social media, noting how many likes some of the obnoxious comments get. For instance, this video suggesting the USA needs to be destroyed to save the world.

I have so many questions… why and how could such a ludicrous video go viral on the Chinese internet? 100,000+ people actually liked it???#TheGreatTranslationMovement#大翻译运动 #China#America pic.twitter.com/NivXl7hEP0

— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动官方推号 (@TGTM_Official) April 8, 2022

For bringing stuff like this to light outside China, state media is on the attack. Here’s a piece published by the Global Times two weeks ago.

In the West, there was a time when witch hunts prevailed. Senator Joseph McCarthy led the communist witch hunts in the 1950s. The movement targeted some groups of people specifically, labeled them as bad, and then attacked them. Now the “Great Translation Movement” is using the same strategy.

Translation is supposed to be a bridge for communication, but the “Great Translation Movement” is using it in a distorted and purposeful way. The participants of this co-called movement are those unfriendly or even hostile toward China with the simple purpose of creating more waves of anti-China sentiment. And by magnifying some marginal, extreme viewpoints of the Chinese netizens, these people attempt to solidify other nations’ biased perceptions of China…

Behind the “Great Translation Movement,” are some Chinese citizens that vent their frustration online, and some foreign hostile forces that hide their true identity to deliberately spread hatred against China and its people. In the face of that, we need to strengthen the management of the internet by legal regulations. Through measures such as real-name registration and IP tracking, we can unmask who’s really behind these forces.

So the problem isn’t that 100,000 people liked a video saying the US should be destroyed. The problem is that someone highlighted the fact on Twitter. But with even more stringent internet regulations the CCP hopes to stop that happening in the future.

The real problem here is that the CCP has created millions of online “little pinks” and “wolf warriors” who’ve been taught to be eager for confrontation with the west. Despite having created this monster China now wants to pretend like it doesn’t exist and it will do what it can to silence anyone who points it out.