Behind seemingly harmless videos of young Chinese women speaking fluent Greek, sharing everyday moments, cultural stories and cheerful messages about China, a more complex influence operation appears to be taking shape.
A network of Greek-language social media accounts, some officially labelled by Meta as China state-controlled media, has built a significant audience in Greece and Cyprus through polished lifestyle content, paid promotion and a carefully cultivated image of authenticity — while maintaining links to Chinese state media and amplifying narratives favourable to Beijing.
Chinese content creators
In the case of China, propaganda on social media platforms such as Facebook often does not appear as political or state-driven communication. Instead, it is channelled through female influencers who show entirely everyday and seemingly authentic moments. One key element is what is known as “role concealment.” Many of these content creators present themselves as travel vloggers, food bloggers, or people simply showing their life in China.
However, in several cases, it has been revealed that they are linked to, or cooperate with Chinese state media. Their content is mainly lifestyle-oriented, but it follows a consistent direction: presenting China in a positive light while avoiding or countering criticism on issues such as human rights.
At the same time, there is a strong element of coordination. These are not simply isolated accounts, but networks that reproduce similar messages in many languages and across multiple platforms. This creates the impression that these are “spontaneous” opinions from many different people, while in reality, specific narratives are being amplified.
The fact that these are often female influencers is not accidental. This particular style of communication is “softer,” more personal, and aims to build trust. Through everyday moments, an emotional tone, and direct contact with the audience, a sense of familiarity is created. Within this framework, even political messages can be easily conveyed and with less resistance.
Another element is aesthetics and professionalism. The content is often highly polished visually and presents an image of China as a modern, safe, and culturally rich country. Instead of directly confronting criticism, it promotes an alternative image of reality that works persuasively through visuals rather than argumentation.
This is a more modern form of propaganda, in which state narratives are not conveyed directly by official outlets, but are “dressed up” as personal stories and experiences from people who appear independent and authentic. In reality, they are often employees of state media outlets such as CGTN, Xinhua, and China Radio International.
As an example, two Facebook pages targeting a Greek-speaking audience carry Meta’s official label for “China state-controlled media”. This means that “Meta has labelled this publisher as state-controlled media because it believes that it may be partially or wholly under the editorial control of the state. The assessment is based on various factors, such as funding, organisational structure, and journalistic standards”.
The Greek-language Chinese accounts on Facebook are the following:
- Marianna’s Diary
- Link: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064961195623
- Page name: Marianna’s Diary.
- Description: “A Chinese woman who speaks Greek!”
- Number of followers: Approximately 131,000. Includes links to Instagram, with 1,061 followers, and YouTube, which is unavailable. The Instagram account includes a link to TikTok, with 81,000 followers.
- Category: Personal blog.
- Meta label: China state-controlled media, displayed in the introductory section of the page.
- Content style: Friendly, personal reels and posts in Greek. It is presented as a personal diary.
- Examples: Greetings to Greece such as “Happy anniversary, Greece! Greetings from friends of different ethnic groups in China!!!”, everyday life in China, cultural topics, handicrafts, nature, and positive messages about China.
- Her exact identity is unknown, but she works at the state-run China Media Group. The content receives hundreds of thousands, or even more than one million, views.
- Sweet Elpida
- Link: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064220677213
- Page name: Sweet Elpida | Beijing.
- Description: “Elpida’s page, a hopeful Chinese woman living in Beijing.”
- Number of followers: Approximately 91,000. Includes links to YouTube, with 107,000 subscribers, and TikTok, with 1,505 followers.
- Category: Personal blog – Beijing, China.
- Meta label: China state-controlled media, displayed in the page transparency section and on posts.
- Content style: Friendly, influencer-style content in Greek with a positive tone.
- Examples: Posts about spring in Beijing, such as “Guys, happy anniversary!! Long live Greece!! Where will you celebrate today?” and “Spring in Beijing does not speak; it only quietly awakens the beautiful flowers. I hope this wonderful season brings joy and happiness to all of you!!”, everyday life, seasons, flowers, and occasional topics of cultural friendship with Greece.
- Her real name is Yawen Wu, or Elpida Wu, and she works as a journalist at China Media Group, something she does not mention on her profile. Greek media outlets have published features about the fact that she speaks fluent Greek. The content receives hundreds of thousands, or even more than one million, views.
The two women mentioned above know each other and cooperate, without however promoting this fact. In this photo, they are seen standing on either side of a woman from Greece.
Another page, which, however, does not carry the relevant Facebook label, is the following:
- Link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090452107575
- Page name: Iro Li.
- Description: Presented as a young Chinese woman who speaks Greek, in a similar style to the other two.
- Followers: Approximately 31,000. Includes links to Instagram, with 1,468 followers, TikTok, with 10,500 followers, and YouTube, with 123 subscribers.
- Content style: Very friendly and positive. Posts are in Greek.
- Topics: Everyday life in China, seasonal and cultural themes, Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year, snowy landscapes, videos with pandas, and so on.
- She is a journalist, and in September 2024 she interviewed the Regional Governor of Western Greece, Nektarios Farmakis, on behalf of the state-controlled China Radio International, CRI.
The three accounts above have a combined total of more than 455,000 followers and subscribers across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Combined with content that receives hundreds of thousands to millions of views, it shows that they have a strong footprint and reach among Greek-speaking audiences in Greece and Cyprus.
Regarding the transparency of these three pages, beyond Meta’s label on two of them indicating that they are state-controlled by China, we see that they were created between 2021 and 2023, have 19, 18, and 10 administrators respectively, run advertisements, and that two of them have run ads on social issues, elections, or politics, according to Meta. Although the ads are in Greek, they target multiple countries, with particular emphasis on Greece and Cyprus. The first page has run a total of 71 ads, the second 76, and the third 84.
The “middleman”
The first two pages mentioned above, Marianna’s Diary and Sweet Elpida, use an intermediary for ad payments. In Meta’s Ad Library, we see that the advertiser and payer is a private company called HONGKONG GATHER WISDOM NETWORK TECHNOLOGY CO., LIMITED. It is an online marketing company based in Hong Kong, founded in 2016 and specialises in performance marketing, advertising on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, influencer promotion, and content promotion abroad in general.
This does not mean that the company is the owner or creator of the content. It means that it manages or pays for the promotion of posts so that they reach more Greek users. This is a common practice among Chinese clients, because Hong Kong has easier access to international platforms. It is a regular advertising and promotional company used, among other things, to increase the visibility of positive content about China.
In the case of the third page, however, Iro Li, the funding is directly state-linked. In the Ad Library, we see that the advertiser is called “中视前卫影视传媒有限公司”. It is a 100% state-owned company and belongs fully to China Media Group, or 中央广播电视总台 – CMG / CCTV. It is a subsidiary of China Global Television Corporation, which falls under the broader CCTV/CMG structure.
The payer is YinoLink, 易诺, a professional advertising company based in Hangzhou, China. It operates as a service that opens and manages advertising accounts for Chinese clients on social media, including state or state-linked entities.
A global phenomenon
According to an Associated Press article, China has created an extensive network of “influencers” on social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, where journalists and employees of state media outlets such as CGTN, Xinhua, and China Radio International present themselves as independent travel bloggers, lifestyle vloggers, and “life bloggers.” The AP identified, in 2022, dozens of such accounts operating in 38 languages and collectively having more than 10 million followers.
The accounts mainly publish positive, “light” content, like everyday life in China, food, travel, culture, etc., in order to attract audience, while at the same time ignoring issues such as human rights violations and promoting a positive image of the PRC and support for China’s positions on international issues, such as the war in Ukraine.
The AP article describes exactly the phenomenon we see in the three Greek pages, Marianna’s Diary, Iro Li, and Sweet Elpida: young Chinese women who present their content as personal diaries, speak Greek, have a friendly style, and have received Meta’s China state-controlled media label.
According to Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, formerly Miburo, a team specialising in the analysis of foreign influence operations, more than 200 influencers aligned with the Chinese government and state media have been identified. They operate in around 40 languages, from English and Arabic to Lao, Albanian, Thai, and others. They use platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, and create PUGC-style content (Professional User Generated Content) meaning professionally produced material that is presented as personal, authentic, and “friendly.”
These influencers build trust as “friends” with excellent knowledge of the local language. They avoid discussion with critics and interact only with positive comments. Microsoft Threat Analysis Center stresses that this tactic is more effective than traditional propaganda because it reaches the audience first, uses “authentic” voices, makes rebuttal harder because it spreads propaganda indirectly, and exploits platforms that often struggle to detect this kind of “grey” content. The two specific reports can be found on the Miburo website, here and here.
Sometimes, these individuals adopt a more serious way of interacting with their audience, for example when they want to comment on geopolitical issues such as American positions on the port of Piraeus in Greece and the control exercised on it by COSCO, the biggest Chinese state-owned shipowner.
As mentioned above, the ads target Greek-speaking users at a pan-European level, but with a particular geographic emphasis on Greece and Cyprus. These advertising campaigns are highly successful. For example, the ads in the pictures below were shown to 182,363 and 97,953 Facebook user accounts respectively, the overwhelming majority of them in Greece and Cyprus.
What is noteworthy, however, is that the first advertisement, which contains a video, does not match the content of the “Iro Li” profile, which generally concerns emotional and “light” personal moments. In this case, we see the book “On Protracted War”, by the first leader of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, being advertised. The book analyses China’s strategy against the Japanese invasion and the defeat of the enemy through attrition. At the same time, it emphasises that war is both military and political, with the mobilisation of the masses and their ideological commitment being of decisive importance.
Today, the book continues to be used by Chinese state media as a tool for long-term struggles, stressing the need for patience and ultimate victory through persistent effort. Its promotion abroad is indirect and more limited compared with its domestic use, with state media outlets such as Global Times, China Military Online, CGTN, and Xinhua mentioning the book in their English-language articles, especially when discussing the trade war with the United States or long-term competition and resistance more generally. The promotion of the book helped this specific video reach 2.9 million views.
The same profile, Iro Li, has advertised content portraying a highly positive image of life in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. However, there are many reports of serious human rights violations by China in this region, something the profile ignores, as well as reports of attempts to whitewash life and culture in the region.
It is a documented practice that the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, through propaganda mechanisms, often uses the image of citizens of Western countries, such as bloggers, vloggers, students, and academics who visit China, to promote (probably without their knowledge) exclusively positive images of China. Similarly, Greeks have also appeared on the accounts we are examining, such as a video of Greek students from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which gathered more than 3.5 million views in Greece and Cyprus through the “Sweet Elpida” account. This large number of views is partly due to the fact that the video was promoted through Facebook advertising.
“Recruiting” local influencers
Another practice reported internationally is the effort to “recruit” influencers from target countries, through hospitality and even promises of financial compensation. One case of a popular Greek influencer who was “hosted” in China both by “Marianna’s Diary” and by “Sweet Elpida” is Marianna Grfld. The visit was widely promoted through her own accounts as well as through the Chinese profiles, with one of the posts receiving 1.4 million views. We were unable to establish whether the Greek influencer knew, or knows, the status of her hosts.
Another case is that of Venetia Kamara, the popular Greek influencer, who was recently invited to China, and travelled there, by “Marianna from China Media Group of the country’s State Radio and Television Station,” as she herself states. “Marianna” is none other than the woman behind the profile “Marianna’s Diary.”
Internationally, the direct use of foreign influencers who travel to China free of charge is also an established practice, often in exchange for payment. All of this takes place within the framework of China’s official state policy of beautifying its image abroad — proposed in 2013 by China’s leader Xi Jinping and official, at least since 2021.
We contacted the three profiles above, but no response was received by the time of publication.
Conclusion
Taken together, these accounts illustrate how Chinese state-linked influence operations can adapt to local audiences by adopting the language, cultural references and visual codes of everyday social media. Young Chinese women speaking fluent Greek, using a warm and friendly tone, and publishing content tailored to Greece do not merely represent isolated lifestyle profiles, but they fit into a wider global pattern in which individuals linked to Chinese state media present themselves as independent influencers while promoting an overwhelmingly positive image of China.
According to research, Beijing has developed a network of more than 200 such influencers operating in at least 38 languages, reaching tens of millions of followers worldwide.
In Greece, pages such as “Marianna’s Diary,” “Sweet Elpida,” and “Iro Li” appear to follow the same model. Their content is polished, emotionally engaging and seemingly personal, but their links to Chinese state media, Meta’s state-controlled media labels in two cases, the use of paid advertising and the presence of multiple page administrators point to something far more structured.
Their promotion is often handled through advertising companies based in Hong Kong, while in some cases directly state-owned Chinese entities also appear in the advertising chain. All of this suggests that behind the image of “a Chinese woman sharing her everyday life” lies an organised, professional and costly influence operation designed to shape perceptions of China among Greek-speaking audiences in Greece and Cyprus.
