The videos were recently posted to an account called “Ladina,” but her lip movements don’t quite match up with the audio in the videos. That’s because the person in the videos is actually Australian professional strategistShad Zahraiwho has more than 1.7 million followers on TikTok, had her videos altered using artificial intelligence. Someone dubbed Zahrai’s video clips with Mandarin Chinese, making it appear that she was hawking Russian products.

Welcome to the genre that’s booming on Chinese social media: AI-faked videos featuring purported young Russian women, used to rally support for Sino-Russian relations, stoke patriotic fervor or make money — or sometimes all three.

It is unclear who is behind the videos, but most eventually direct viewers to a product link, suggesting their primary purpose is commercial. The main target audience appears to be nationalistic Chinese men.

The videos, often with tags like “Russian wives” and “Russian beauties,” describe how accomplished Chinese men are or plead with them to save them from poverty or their less-than-perfect country.

In another video, a blonde woman described her gratitude for coming to China.

“I really envy my Chinese friends because you are born with the world’s most precious identity and the most profound and fascinating language,” she said in a video posted on the Instagram-like platform Xiaohongshu.

In another video, the woman thanked the Chinese people for buying Russian chocolate from her and helping Russia through its economic difficulties. “In the past year, the whole world has been boycotting Russia and imposing various restrictions and difficulties on us. China is like a savior,” she said.

Loic, who does not speak Chinese, said in an interview that she would never praise Russia in that way. She is from Ukraine and some of her relatives are still there.

The makers of these videos are trying to capitalize on a market created by China’s current geopolitical, technological and public sentiment.

Russia and China have significantly deepened their ties in recent years, with the two countries’ leaders, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, declaring a “unlimited” partnership in the face of growing hostility from the West.Got Xi JinpingWarm welcome.

Using foreign faces to praise China is also to take advantage ofNational pride or nationalism among Chinese audiences. In a censored environment where more and more topics are off-limits, nationalistic content has become one of the most reliable traffic drivers on the Chinese internet.

“Presenting young white women in a sexually objectified way is a typical manifestation of gender nationalism or nationalist sexism,” Zhang Chenchen wrote in an email. “Viewers can affirm their own nationalism and male pride in the process of consuming such content.”

The Chinese government often encourages nationalism online, but there is no indication it had anything to do with the deepfakes (although some local governments have had close ties to the real ones).Russian womencooperatepromoting similar messages about China’s charms). There is also a small but genuine group of Russian influencers on Chinese social media, many of them young women.

Mr. Zahrai’s agency said in an email that the AI ​​modifications in the videos were of “poor quality” and “likely to look fake” even to casual viewers. Some of the account’s videos have only a few dozen views, but one discussing marriage to a Russian woman has 22,000 views.

That didn’t seem to matter: An automated counter that popped up during one of the account’s videos showed that the brand’s salt had been purchased 360,000 times on the Douyin platform.

When The New York Times contacted the TikTok account that contained the doctored Zahrai videos, the account holder confirmed in an audio message that he had made the videos. “Three builds, audio, video and mouth, unlimited generation of any video you want,” he said, before unfriending the reporter.

The videos vary in sophistication. Some of the fake women appear to be completely computer-generated, with stiff movements and little to no avail.《The Sims“gameSome of the characters are stronger. Some are excellent, such as the doctored video based on Loic.

“Even though I know it’s not me, the reality is still scary,” said Loic, who recently discovered that more than 30 different social media accounts in China had stolen her image. “When I decided to create my own YouTube channel, I knew about the dangers of deepfakes, but I thought it was mainly a concern for famous political and entertainment figures. Now I realize that anyone who uploads a video of themselves online could be affected.”

In recent weeks, the social media platforms have stepped up censorship, removing some AI videos or labeling some of them. China was the first country to enact regulations targeting generative AI, and some of its policies are theoretically stricter than those in the West.

But countries around the world have struggled to enforce their rules. Detecting wrongdoing can be particularly difficult in China, where the internet is closed and many foreign social media outlets are banned.

Foreign influencers are unlikely to know their photos are being used on Chinese social media and file copyright lawsuits. Chinese platforms also may not refer to overseas content when checking for AI manipulation, said a 35-year-old man who gave only his last name, Chen. He ran two AI-generated accounts of Russian women and said he earned about 7,000 yuan a month from them, but closed them in March over concerns about increased regulation.

But more videos are still coming in. Russia may be the hot topic now, but the practice could quickly spread to the next trend, said Lu Haibing of Santa Clara University.

“People behind the scenes will manipulate any possible topic to attract people’s attention,” he said. “Showing parents ‘how to get into a prestigious school’; showing young ladies ‘how to be beautiful’. I believe that in the future, everyone will use artificial intelligence technology to customize topics and make videos to attract specific audiences.”