China's COVID-19 propaganda campaign must be challenged
China's COVID-19 propaganda campaign must be challenged
WRITTEN BY TRIDIVESH SINGH MAINI
14 April 2020
Discontent is rising with President Donald Trump, amid his inability to demonstrate leadership or even work with the global community to help combat COVID-19. Even amongst key U.S. allies, confidence in the abilities of the U.S. President to lead an international response to the worst pandemic seen this century are minimal.
Trump’s own handling of COVID-19 within the United States has also drawn scathing criticism. It’s worth remembering that until the end of February, the President dismissed the threat from Coronavirus, even though he had been warned by senior health intelligence officials as early as January. On both the domestic and international fronts Trump has tried and dramatically failed to show leadership. This is now being reflected in the number of deaths as a result of COVID-19. As of 14 April, the total number of deaths are placed at over 21,000 within the U.S. with a total number of cases placed at 580,000. Globally there are now over 120,000 deaths, with the total number of cases approaching 2 million.
While Trump has sought assistance from South Korea, and alongside India has accepted assistance from Taiwan, it is only in the past few weeks with skyrocketing of cases in New York and Los Angeles, that the President now finally seems to be realizing the need for global cooperation.
Trump however has failed. He failed when given opportunities to work in a structured manner with other countries, and he failed miserably on showing magnanimity or humanitarian impulses vis-à-vis Iran, which has been hit by U.S. sanctions. Tehran has been requesting a waiver of sanctions on medical equipment in the face of COVID-19. A waiver a Trump Administration has promptly refused.
In the coming months, Beijing will have to answer some uncomfortable questions regarding its actions prior to the outbreak in Wuhan. The decision to coverup the virus and not share vital information stands in sharp contrast with Taiwan, which in November 2019 sounded the warning about COVID-19.
Trump has been urged not just by other countries, but even senior U.S. politicians, including Joe Biden and other Democrat leaders, to remove Iranian sanctions. Instead in recent weeks, the administration has imposed more sanctions on Iran, and has even blocked Iran’s request to the International Monetary Fund for $5 billion to help combat the virus.
In the vacuum left by Donald Trump, Xi Jinping’s China has stepped forward. Despite Beijing’s role in concealing information relating to the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, and the World Health Organisation’s parroting of Chinese Communist Party, China has sensed an opportunity to demonstrate global leadership. Whilst this role has not been taken to kindly by states like Japan, Taiwan and UK, other countries have embraced Beijing.
COVID-19: Beijing’s to the rescue?
Since the end of March, Beijing has launched an extensive propaganda campaign, projecting itself as a humanitarian and medical superpower by providing medical supplies to stricken states. Videos appeared widely on social media feeds of Chinese doctors arriving in London, ventilators arriving in New York, and masks and testing kits arriving in Turkey and the Netherlands. In Europe, the epicenter of the crisis, EU and non-EU countries alike such as Serbia and Italy, have lauded China for the assistance provided and welcomed the medical supplies.
Chinese state-run media has predictably wasted no time in criticism of the U.S. for failing to cooperate with other countries whilst heaping praising China’s own role in deploying its extensive resources globally. In an article published 6 April, in the Communist Party’s propaganda mouthpiece The Global Times, an editorial lambasting Trump for his ‘America First’ mindset provides a critical insight into the thinking within the CCP.
Says the article:
‘Fortunately for the world, many countries have turned to China instead of the US for help, and China has given active responses, demonstrating its responsibility as a big power. The international community should unite to win this battle together. The absence of US' leadership does not amount to the end of the world’.
As can be seen, Beijing is more than happy to step into the power vacuum left by the U.S, and is seems increasingly comfortable, rhetorically at least, to adopt the mantle of global leadership.
China is no global leader
While it is true, that U.S. allies are disappointed with Trump’s leadership in the middle of this crisis, the narrative pushed by Beijing’s is being challenged. The arm twisting by China of the World Heath Organisation has been heavily criticized, with widespread calls, especially in Japan for major reforms of the organization post-COVID-19.
Similarly, many countries have been wary of China’s medical supplies, with many European Union and NATO countries complaining that the masks and test kits don’t work. In a diplomatic disaster for Xi Jinping and the Communist Party, Taiwan’s successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the EU, US and UK all reach out to Taipei for medical assistance, raising the prospect, however limited, of a reversal of Taiwan’s growing diplomatic isolation.
There are further challenges for China. There have been widespread concerns across the world that the COVID-19 numbers reported by China are at best misleading, especially regarding the numbers outside of Wuhan. Likewise, the narrative pushed by Beijing that it is the leader in combatting COVID-19 is also subject to challenge. Both South Korea and Taiwan, democratic and transparent societies in the heart of East Asia have been hugely successful in dealing with COVID-19, without resorting to the sweeping authoritarian measures imposed on the citizens of Wuhan by the CCP.
Amidst a global pandemic with states and institutions being tested to their limits, Taiwan and South Korea have conducted themselves with efficiency and skill that have awarded them ‘soft power’ victories that Beijing cannot hope to match.
Indeed whilst the Trump administration may have not exhibited flexibility vis-à-vis Iran, the UK, Germany and France are providing Iran with medical assistance, through the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) mechanism. Despite the challenges facing these three countries, Paris, Berlin and London are moving to assist the people of Iran and ensure that Beijing is not allowed to further dictate its narrative regarding COVID-19.
In conclusion, the Trump administration may have failed to rise to the occasion, but China with its lack of transparency over COVID-19, it’s role in discrediting the WHO and it’s major human rights violations is in position to do the mantle of global leadership. In the coming months, Beijing will have to answer some uncomfortable questions regarding its actions prior to the outbreak in Wuhan. The decision to coverup the virus and not share vital information stands in sharp contrast with Taiwan, which in November 2019 sounded the warning about COVID-19.
Chinese state-run media and Xi Jinping will in the next year try to exploit divisions between democratic countries and push forward an agenda absolving the Communist Party, but this should be resisted. Western liberal democracies in Europe and North America need to find common ground with the democracies in South Asia and wider Indo-Pacific and ensure that Beijing’s skewed narrative on COVID-19 is checked and ultimately defeated.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Tridivesh Singh Maini is a New Delhi-based policy analyst associated with Jindal School of International Affairs, Sonipat. His areas of interest include the India-China-Pakistan triangle, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the role of India’s state governments in foreign policy (especially the economic dimension), and federalism in India. He was a South Asian Voices Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Center, Washington DC and a Public Policy Scholar with The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Chennai. He can he reached by email. Image credit: CC BY-NC 4.0/World Economic Forum/Flickr.