The elephants are just one manifestation of Beijing’s decade-long obsession with boosting what it calls its “discourse power”. President Xi firmly believes that Beijing needs to upgrade its global image in fitting with its status as the world’s second largest economy. To that end, through the overseas expansion of its state-run media,the acquisition of stakes in foreign news outlets by pro-China businesspeople and the construction of global communications infrastructure,such as
China’s wandering elephants have been harnessed in the service of the nation’s international image.Yunan Forest Fire Brigade
When it comes to the global image war,the narrative battle that has raged between China and the US over COVID’s origins is just one skirmish in a much wider campaign. Yet the impact of the pandemic has been to supercharge the conflict,reshaping the battlefield and allowing Beijing to take advantage of Washington’s distraction at a time of domestic Trump-related turmoil.
In the past year,Beijing’s cadre of “wolf warrior” diplomats has aggressively used social media to spread disinformation,in particular. China’s also used paid trolls and ordinary citizens in influence campaigns,. It’s moved on from its original aim of to produce region-specific propaganda,sometimes.
This represents a more assertive strategy,harnessing the web of content-sharing agreements it has already built,which offers Chinese propaganda for free to overseas news outlets. Beijing is also spending millions placing advertorials in foreign newspapers. Beijing’s sheer propaganda reach was revealed during a single week during the March meeting of China’s legislative assembly,when – or “media drops” as it terms them – in 12 languages in 200 news outlets.
Looking back at half a century of China-US relations. Video by Tom Compagnoni.
In the pre-COVID era,Beijing also bought sympathetic coverage in foreign papers by offering free junkets to China for foreign journalists,wowing them with five-star treatment. Dozens of high-profile Australian journalists have availed themselves of such tours;many wrote breathless,wide-eyed paeans echoing the party line on China’s warp-speed economic development. Wittingly or not,they ended up telling China’s story well.
It is one indication of Beijing’s surprising sophistication at propaganda that even though the first known COVID-19 outbreak originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan,China has managed to leverage the pandemic to bolster its global reputation. In research for the International Federation of Journalists, found that almost 60 per cent of respondents judged that coverage of China in their country had become more positive since the COVID outbreak. The vast majority – more than 90 per cent – of those surveyed had received Chinese medical aid,while 42 per cent were recipients of China’s COVID vaccine. In vaccine recipient countries,the predominant narrative regarding China’s handling of the pandemic was twice as likely to be positive.
Meanwhile,chaotic American and European responses to the pandemic played into China’s hands,since they resulted in developing countries publicly pleading for Beijing’s help in providing masks,PPE and medical aid. The deliveries of these provided an opportunity for dramatic and public shows of gratitude,such as in the streets of the Serbian capital. In Tunisia caused many Tunisians to view Beijing as a saviour. In this way,Chinese aid donations do double duty by providing Beijing with propaganda wins that project its image as a responsible member of the international community.
At first glance,such developments seem to clash with Pew Research’s findings that than at any time in the past. However,Pew only surveyed views from,ignoring opinions in non-Anglophone developing economies which are more likely to be recipients of Chinese medical aid. It’s notable that,no matter how poorly the respondents judged China’s COVID response,the US scored even worse;61 per cent of respondents believed China had handled COVID poorly,compared with 84 per cent for the US.
Andrew DysonThe Age
Beijing’s co-ordinated tactics and its ability to mobilise large numbers of citizens give it an organisational edge over Washington. This is bolstered by Beijing’s very deep pockets. Regulatory filings found that funding sponsored supplements in American newspapers;it has paid millions to lobbyists to place pro-China articles in US media and. In this way,Beijing is able to weaponise the propaganda potential offered by the free US press,while Washington is almost unable to break into the closed shop of Chinese state-run newspapers.
Despite its successes,the overriding problem with China’s propaganda effort is its sheer awfulness; for the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary underlines everything that is wrong with Beijing’s propaganda effort. Yet,paradoxically,this too can be a strength. Beijing’s state-produced publicity materials are so clunky they are often discounted as ineffective,and in this way are allowed to seep into foreign news ecosystems.
One example is Italy where the ANSA news agency runs 50 stories by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency every day. One journalist we interviewed simply shrugged this off,saying,“I think we have the necessary antibodies to understand and identify fake news and refuse them.” He acknowledged,however,that the sheer quantity of Chinese information might end up reshaping the information landscape.
And yet Beijing may find that it has overplayed its hand. Recent reports indicate that some of the 90 countries that relied heavily on despite vaccinating most of their population. If China’s vaccines prove ineffective at combating COVID-19,the cost will be in human tragedy and all the cute elephant stories in the world will not be enough to uphold China’s lovable global image.
Louisa Lim wroteThe COVID 19 Story:Unmasking China’s Global Strategy for the International Federation of Journalists with Julia Bergin from the University of Melbourne and Dr Johan Lidberg from Monash University.
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