PARPCC#20 – Has China won the blame game around the COVID-19 pandemic? ?

In 2020, as the world learns of the first cases of the disease later called COVID-19, the Chinese provinces and central government sought to stifle “the rumor”. As during the SARS epidemic, presque 20 years ago. Leaving this initial posture, Beijing then sounded the alert and engaged in an offensive and defensive information war to counter the reproaches of the international community..

For the authors of the study, Loh and Loke, the informational struggles initiated by China around the COVID-19 pandemic serve two interests : 1) establish China’s status as a “responsible” great power within the international community ; et 2) legitimize the Chinese Communist Party among its fellow citizens. The COVID-19 blame game has thus been structured around three roles : an accuser (the international community), accused (China) and one or more spectators (the Chinese population and China's partner countries).

To serve its interests, China has deployed a range of defensive tools by posing as the first victim of the virus, for example, to minimize the role of central government in the spread of the virus; and offensive, asthe aggressive declarations of diplomats posted in the West. These tools seemed to conflict: on the one hand, China has organized disinformation campaigns on the origin of the virus, the other, she assured the World Health Organization of her financial support (while Donald Trump suspended the contribution of the United States). For Loh and Loke, these apparently contradictory elements are in fact no longer so if we look at the recipients of this communication strategy.

On the one hand, aggressive tweets from Chinese “wolf-warrior” diplomats on Twitter, social network inaccessible in China, were widely relayed in the form of screenshots on Weibo, first Chinese social network. These publications therefore also targeted a Chinese audience. A l’inverse, WHO funding, distribution of international aid in the form of equipment, masks and vaccines, sought to reassure the international community of the Chinese desire to act responsibly and collectively.

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This strategy would have had a limited effect on the international community, but would have proven effective among the Chinese population. By highlighting this “double public” mechanism (Chinese population/international community), the analysis of Loh and Lok joins the work ofJessica Chen Weiss on the importance of China's image in its foreign policy. Communication at the same time serving external objectives, but above all internal, to establish the legitimacy of the CCP among its population. In the literature on authoritarian regimes, the question of blame is often addressed from the internal perspective (domestic politics) : the state blames local authorities, and vice versa. This article shows how authoritarian regimes implement “internal” legitimation processes, including in their diplomatic activity..

Reference: Loh, Dylan, M.H.; Loke, Beverley (2023), «COVID-19 and the International Politics of Blame: Assessing China’s Crisis (Mis)management Practices”, The China Quarterly, pp.1-17.