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

Theory Briefing

• A provincial propaganda department in China issued a public warning against pseudo-history myths, a rare state move targeting domestic conspiracy content.
• Theories circulating in China claim figures like Aristotle never existed and that Western civilizations were fabricated or stolen from other cultures.
• The state intervention suggests these fringe historical narratives have grown popular enough to be seen as a social problem worth official correction.
• The episode raises a sharp question: when a government decides which history is real, who guards the guardrails?