China Covid-19: How state media and censorship tackled the coronavirus

At the beginning of the year, the Chinese government faced two major challenges; an unknown disease that threatened to tear its population apart and a wave of online voices telling the world what was happening.

In late 2020, a look at Chinese state media shows that both seem to be under control.

BBC’s Kerry Allen and Zhaoyin Feng take a look at the country’s online government censors who have worked harder than ever to suppress negative information, the citizens who managed to break through the Great Firewall and how the propaganda machine rewrote the narrative.

At the beginning of the year, it was clear that something unprecedented was happening. Thousands of messages of public outrage appeared on Chinese social media, asking if local governments were covering up another SARS-like virus.

While government censors routinely silence anti-government messages on platforms like Sina Weibo, they were so large that many remained visible.

This is because, in the face of major disasters, the Chinese government often struggles to react and censors are slow to act. In January and February, several media outlets took the opportunity to publish hard-hitting investigations, widely shared on social media.

Later, when Beijing came up with an advertising strategy, those reports were stifled.

The blame was being pointed out in all directions. In mid-January, Chinese President Xi Jinping suddenly became an absent figure in the Chinese media. He was not seen in public, and photos of him disappeared from the front pages of traditional government vehicles, such as the People’s Daily. There was some speculation that he was physically avoiding guilt.

In a week, however, things have changed considerably. Senior officials began to warn local governments that “they would forever be nailed to the pillar of historic shame” if they withheld information about the cases in their regions.

The blame was transferred in Chinese media and social media to Wuhan’s leadership, with newspapers like Beijing News writing unusually critical comments, asking, “Why didn’t Wuhan inform the public before?”

Mr. Xi then reappeared in early February as a pillar of confidence and strength amid China’s recovery.

In the midst of all the confusion, it became clear that a man’s voice was silenced where it shouldn’t have been.

Li Wenliang became known internationally as the “whistleblower” doctor who tried to alert colleagues about a virus similar to SARS. Dr. Li died on February 7, after it was discovered that he had been investigated for “disturbing the social order” by “making false comments”.

More than a million users have accessed Sina Weibo to post messages of support for him on his profile after his death, which many have called the “Western Wall” of China. However, posts have been deleted periodically, much to people’s frustration.

Netizens, however, have found creative ways to keep their memory alive using emojis, Morse code and ancient Chinese writing.

Many also wrote messages that they cannot say online in their masks. A trend appeared on Facebook and the popular WeChat mobile messenger of users who wrote the words “I can’t understand this” on their masks in response to Dr. Li’s death.

Although the authorities officially recognized Dr. Li Wenliang as a “martyr”, several notable activists may have come out of the country’s Covid-19 history.

During the Wuhan outbreak, several citizen journalists had a notable impact internationally, bypassing the “great firewall of China” to publicize the city.

These include Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Zhang Zhan. They have accumulated hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube for videos that they said gave a true picture of what was going on in Wuhan.

However, this came at a cost. The Committee to Protect Journalists notes that in Wuhan, officials “arrested several journalists for coverage that threatened the official narrative of Beijing’s response”. CPJ says three are still in prison. And since YouTube is blocked in China, few in the country are aware of its impact.

Questions were also raised about whether a journalist who reappeared became part of an overseas advertising campaign.

Li Zehua disappeared in February after posting a video on YouTube saying he was being chased in his car by the police.

He hasn’t heard from her for two months, but posted a video saying he was cooperating with the authorities and was quarantined.

He hasn’t posted since, and many have suggested that he may have been forced to make the video.

Since March, China has wanted to mark its success in overcoming the coronavirus, but it has become especially evident that censors have tried to eliminate evidence of discontent, especially among young people.

China emphasized that it wants to avoid another Wuhan-style blockade. However, as the South China Morning Post notes, many universities have continued to implement “general campus blocks”.

In August, many students returned to a physical classroom for the first time. But protests erupted on campuses across the country for universities to ration the internet and bathing hours, due to the sudden overcapacity. There were also complaints that university canteens exploited food dependency at the site and increased food costs. Many of these conversations were later censored.

Anger and dissatisfaction among young people in China has pushed many this year to move beyond traditional social media platforms to lesser known ones, to find a shared voice.

The news website Sixth Tone watches a wave of “NetEmo” on the music streaming platform, Netease Cloud Music, with “penetrating” comments from young Chinese people about “failed exams, doomed relationships and shattered dreams”.

He says the platform tried to “contain the trend” by announcing a crackdown on what he called comments from “manufactured” users.

China also tried to promote an overly optimistic picture.

While there are concerns that the Crown may tell an inauthentic version of the UK’s real history, many Chinese are concerned that the books and TV shows of the post-Covid era have not accurately shown what happened in Wuhan.

Chinese author Fang Fang received high praise earlier this year for documenting her life in Wuhan and providing a rare glimpse into the fears and hopes of Wuhan residents.

However, her online diary has made her the target of fervent Chinese nationalists, who accuse her of trying to defame China and promote a “doomsday narrative”.

The state media has sought to promote other books, including expatriates, to reinforce the government’s optimistic message about the management of the virus by the authorities.

In some cases, there was a reaction from the state media that dictated a certain narrative about the treatment of the Wuhan outbreak.

This was evident in September, when Heroes in Harm’s Way, the first drama “based on real-life stories” by frontline workers, received criticism for downplaying the role women played in the outbreak.

It is clear that China wants to end 2020 on a high.

In addition to telling its own citizens that it largely won the war because of its Covid-19, China also wants to tell the world.

But China now seeks to distance itself from its first connections with the coronavirus and promote the idea that China’s Covid-19 success means that its political model is more successful than that of the West.

This went beyond asking for an end to loaded terminology, like the “Wuhan coronavirus” – which the Chinese media itself even used in the early stages – to intensify suggestions that the coronavirus might actually have started in the West.

The Chinese media did not miss an opportunity throughout the year to point out that the United States – and, to a certain extent, the United Kingdom – the inadequate handling of the virus and how it has aggravated divisions.

This happened to the point that it became popular among Chinese Internet users to call Covid-19 the “virus of America” ​​or “Trump virus”.

Chinese newspapers and broadcasters made a point of pointing out when the US media turned against it, how politicians prioritized spending on election campaigns at the expense of health and how a confused and interminable election led to extreme political polarization.

If there is a message that China wants to carry by 2021, it is that the country is closing the year with unity and prosperity, while other countries can only anticipate new divisions and instability.