Telling China's COVID-19 Story Well: Beijing's Efforts to Control Information and Shape Public Narratives Regarding the 2020 Global Pandemic

Abstract

As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has striven to shape the domestic and international public narratives around the crisis. Chief among its arguments are that China rose to the challenge of the outbreak and has exemplified the role of a responsible great power. At the same time, it has attempted to deflect blame for the initial outbreak by engaging in an unprecedented disinformation campaign aimed at sowing doubt over the origin of the virus. This report reconstructs the evolution of these narratives and their supporting themes, as well as the wide range of tools and tactics that Beijing has used to influence public opinion - to include diverse public messaging platforms, foreign aid efforts, and suppression of domestic dissidents. The report also examines how Beijing has attempted to use the crisis to degrade international trust in Washington by using the US response to the pandemic as a foil against which to highlight its own successes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1145617

Entities

People

  • Josiah Case

Organizations

  • Center for Naval Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boats
  • Covid-19
  • Department Of State
  • Health Services
  • Infectious Diseases
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Medical Personnel
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Navy
  • Political Systems
  • Quarantine
  • Sars
  • Social Media
  • Uss Theodore Roosevelt
  • Viruses

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Asian Economic Studies
  • Infectious Disease/Epidemiology
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.