By Dr. Carlyle Thayer, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the UNSW's School of Humanities and Social Sciences

In a case of propaganda gone wrong, on the same day in June, two separate media outlets in the Solomon Islands published the exact same op-ed, verbatim. Strangely, each published the same piece under a different by-line.

Stranger still, both authors seem not to exist, and each piece conveniently regurgitates the same clunky Chinese narratives on why Pacific island states, Palau in particular, should abandon Taiwan.

This is a classic case of sock puppetry gone wrong: a smoking gun laying bare Beijing's attempts at cognitive warfare.

The propaganda disaster class is indicative of the all-encompassing, cross-domain threat China now poses. From the unsuspecting op-ed seeking to saturate search engines and influence the subconscious, to a far more blatant and aggressive military build-up, the danger posed by China now comes from all angles.

Indeed, Beijing is by most measures a military colossus, adding some 100 nuclear warheads to its arsenal each year, with defence spending nearly eight times that of Australia's.

In this respect, it is hard to disagree with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's assessment that China, at least in its long-term plan, is seeking to disrupt regional stability and assume........

© International Business Times