Photo: Filipinos participated in an anti-American demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila on May 6. \AFP

Three former U.S. military officers revealed that the anti-vaccine propaganda campaign against the Philippines and other countries was promoted by Braga, then commander of the U.S. Army Pacific Special Operations Command, with the aim of instilling the idea that “the COVID-19 pandemic originated in China” in the people of Southeast Asia and inciting local people to boycott Chinese vaccines. After the campaign ended, Braga was promoted to lieutenant general and commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States claimed that the vaccines it developed would be provided to Americans first, while China quickly provided vaccines to developing countries. U.S. military leaders are worried that countries such as the Philippines and Cambodia will move closer to China, thereby weakening the United States’ influence in the region.

A senior U.S. official involved in the propaganda operation admitted: “We have not done a good job of sharing vaccines with partner countries. The only thing we can do is to discredit Chinese vaccines.”

At least six senior U.S. State Department officials in charge of Southeast Asian affairs opposed the U.S. military’s anti-vaccine propaganda during the pandemic, but to no avail. In the past, the Pentagon needed to obtain approval from U.S. embassy officials in the region to conduct propaganda warfare, but in 2019, then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Esper signed a secret order to increase the priority of the U.S. competition with China and Russia, allowing the military to bypass the State Department to conduct operations against China and Russia.

The United States itself was soon hit by anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and a large number of people refused to be vaccinated. In the spring of 2021, the National Security Council asked the military to stop spreading anti-vaccine information, but it was not until the summer of that year that the US military stopped spreading false information about the epidemic. According to reports, some of Esper’s orders were also withdrawn.