China's Communist Party journal warns against AI-generated 'fake history' content

A Chinese Communist Party theoretical journal has issued a warning against "fake history" content being mass-produced by AI.

Qiushi, the party's flagship theoretical journal, published an editorial Monday saying that "extreme pseudo-historical claims spreading online have already damaged our country's academic discourse rights and its cultural image abroad" as such content continues to reach international audiences, according to the South China Morning Post.

Among the examples cited by Qiushi were claims that the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle never existed and that Mount Emei in Sichuan Province is actually the Alps.

The editorial also mentioned assertions that the West plagiarized the "Yongle Dadian" — a vast encyclopedia compiled during the reign of the Ming dynasty's Yongle Emperor — to produce the achievements of the Industrial Revolution, including calculus and the steam engine.

Also grouped in were claims that deny China's own recorded history, such as assertions that the Tang dynasty never existed or that the Song dynasty lasted 800 years.

Qiushi said some pseudo-historical theories carry ethnic separatist tendencies and could provide a theoretical basis for denying the unity of the Chinese nation. Such claims conflict with the party's official historical position that China inherited sovereignty over Xinjiang, Tibet and Taiwan through the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The journal also criticized those who spread pseudo-history for overlapping with believers in claims such as "the Yuan and Qing dynasties were not China" and the so-called "1644 view of history."

In recent years, a movement to overcome Western-centric historical perspectives has grown in China, with authorities emphasizing the unbroken continuity of Chinese civilization. Within that trend, pseudo-historical theories questioning the origins of Western culture or claiming that major scientific achievements originated in China have gained popularity.