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Did Aristotle exist? China targets pseudo-history myths claiming West stole civilisations

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Alcott Weiin BeijingPublished: 9:00am, 14 Aug 2026A provincial propaganda department in China has warned the public against subscribing to growing conspiracy theories on history, such as those stating that Aristotle and Ancient Greece never existed.

In a post on Wednesday, “Zhejiang Propaganda” – a social media account affiliated with the Zhejiang provincial publicity department – warned about the rise of the “pseudo-historical school” online. The school promotes conspiracy theories that deny Western history and claim key achievements of Western civilisation actually originated in China.

“[The] pseudo-historical school of thought has become a negative ideological trend that spreads through the internet and fractures social cognition,” the post cautioned.

“Such claims appear to promote national confidence, but in reality they reflect ignorance of exchanges between civilisations. In essence, they represent another form of cultural [insecurity].”

The concept of “cultural confidence” became a key part of the “Four Confidences” promoted by President Xi Jinping in 2016 – confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and was later written into the Communist Party constitution.

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