The Hansens office does not look like the one in the video. It is larger, with a fish pond snaking across its wooden floor and a bar in the center.

What the video does reveal, though, is how this tech-savvy country, where 688 million people have internet access, is grappling with a digitally driven “post-truth” environment, just as other nations are.

But complicating the situation in China is an underlying “pre-truth,” the result of state censorship that manipulates and directs reporting.

“The truth is always pre-made in China rather than uncovered through the reporting of facts,” David Bandurski, editor of the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong, said in an interview.

One result is that fact and fiction are at times hardly distinguishable online, reflected in annual lists of the country’s biggest “fake news” stories.

One such story last year involved a document, said to be from the State Council, China’s cabinet, setting limits on the amount a man could pay his bride’s family when marrying. (The “limit” was reported to be 30,000 renminbi, about $4,460; the “fine” for exceeding it 60,000 renminbi.) Officials from the Ministry of Public Security declared the story false.

Disinformation does not go entirely unchecked. Chinese can face administrative or criminal penalties for spreading fake news reports, though human rights advocates say the rules are also used to silence dissent.