Coronavirus in China: how state media and censorship rewrote the history of covid-19

#While government censors routinely suppress anti-government messages on platforms like #Sina #Weibo, in this case there was such a large volume that many of them remained visible.

#This is because censors are sometimes slow to act. #In #January and #February, numerous media outlets took the opportunity to publish impact research that was widely shared on the networks.

#Later, as a propaganda strategy emerged in #Beijing, these reports were overshadowed.

#Guilty parties were sought everywhere. #Chinese #President #Xi #Jinping suddenly disappeared from the official media in mid-January. #He was not seen in public and his usual photos in the front pages of government publications such as the “#Diario del #Pueblo” stopped appearing. #Speculation arose as to whether he was trying to avoid being singled out as guilty.

#In less than a week, things changed considerably. #Senior #Chinese leaders warned local governments that “they would be nailed forever to the pillar of historical shame” if they withheld any information about the cases in their regions.

#In the #Chinese media and on the networks, blame began to fall on the backs of the local rulers of #Wuhan, the city where the new coronavirus was first detected, and newspapers such as the #Beijing #News were pouring unusually critical comments asking questions. : “#Why didn’t #Wuhan let the public know earlier?”

#Xi #Jinping reappeared at the beginning of #February showing himself as the pillar on which to trust the #Chinese recovery.

#Amid the confusion, it became clear that a voice that should have been heard had been silenced.

#Li #Wenliang had become known internationally as the doctor who had tried to warn his colleagues of the presence of a new virus similar to #Sars.

#Dr. #Li died on #February 7, after it emerged that he had been investigated for “disturbing the social order” by making “false comments.”

#More than a million users took to the #Weibo network to leave messages of support on their profile after their death, so this virtual space began to be known by many as the “#Western #Wall” of #China.

#But, to the frustration of many people in #China, the messages have been periodically suppressed.

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

There are also many who have written on their masks what they cannot publish on the internet. “I am not able to understand this” was the message that became a trend on #Facebook and the #WeChat messaging network to respond to the death of the doctor.

#While authorities have since recognized #Li #Wenliang as “a martyr”, some notable activists will likely be eliminated in the account of COVID-19 in the country.

A group of citizen journalists reached a notable international impact during the #Wuhan outbreak by circumventing the wall of censorship and being able to report on what was happening.

#Among them are #Chen #Qiushi, #Fang #Bin and #Zhang #Zhan, whose videos, in which they claimed to show the true picture of what was happening in #Wuhan, accumulated hundreds of thousands of views on #YouTube.

#This came at a cost to them. #According to the #Committee to #Protect #Journalists (CPJ), in #Wuhan the #Chinese authorities “arrested several journalists for coverage that threatened the official narrative of #Beijing’s response” to the virus.

#According to CPJ, three of them remain in jail. #And since #YouTube is blocked in #China, few within the country know the true impact of the work they did.

#Doubts have also been raised about a journalist suspected of having been part of an international propaganda campaign.

#Li #Zehua disappeared in #February after posting a video on #YouTube claiming to be in his car while being pursued by the police.

#He was not heard from for two months, but then he reappeared in another video saying he had been cooperating with authorities and going through quarantine.

#He has not posted anything since, leading many to suspect that he may have been forced to post this latest video.

#China has wanted to celebrate its success against the coronavirus since #March. #In this time, the attempt by censorship to end any evidence of discontent, especially among young people, has become evident.

#Although authorities have stressed that they want to avoid a new #Wuhan-style lockdown, the #South #China #Morning #Post reports that many universities have continued to impose isolation measures on students.

#In #August, many #Chinese students returned to face-to-face classes for the first time since the outbreak of the epidemic. #But protests soon erupted across the country against universities rationing internet and shower time, due to the sudden saturation of the centers. There were also complaints about high food prices in university canteens. #Many of those conversations were later censored.

#Discontent among #Chinese youth led many this year to go beyond traditional social media and explore lesser-known ways to have a common voice.

The news portal #Sixth #Tone detected the emergence of the proliferation on the video music platform #Netease #Cloud #Music of “ubiquitous” comments from young people about “failed exams, failing relationships and pulverized dreams.”

#He reported that the platform tried to “nip the trend in the bud” by announcing that it would not allow what it described as “fabricated” comments from some users.

#China’s attempts to paint an openly optimistic picture span all fronts.

#In the same way that there have been those who believe that the “The #Crown” series could show a not quite authentic version of the history of #British royalty, many #Chinese fear that the books and television shows of the post-covid era will not show faithfully what happened in #Wuhan.

#Writer #Fang #Fang received numerous accolades earlier this year for documenting her life in #Wuhan and offering a rare glimpse into the fears and hopes of its inhabitants.

#However, her online diary has since made her the target of fervent #Chinese nationalists who accuse her of trying to slander their country and promoting “a doomsday narrative.”

The state media have sought to promote other books, including those by some expatriates, to support the optimism of the official message and the authorities’ handling of the crisis.

#In some cases, the attempt by state media to impose a narrative about how the #Wuhan outbreak was handled has turned against the authorities.

#This is what happened in #September, when the first ever drama “based on true stories” of emergency workers was criticized for belittling the role women played in the outbreak.

#It is clear that #China wants to end 2020 in high spirits.

#In addition to telling his citizens that he has won the war against covid-19, he wants to tell the world.

#Beijing seeks to move away from its early link to the coronavirus and promote the idea that #China’s success against the disease shows that its political model will also be more successful than the western one.

#This has led to a call for the term “#Wuhan coronavirus”, used even by the #Chinese media itself at first, to be discontinued, and to increasingly hint that the coronavirus actually emerged in the #West.

The #Chinese media has not missed an opportunity this year to highlight the poor handling of the virus in the US and, to some extent, the UK, and how this has exacerbated divisions; to the point that it has become popular among #Chinese netizens to refer to the virus as “the #American virus” or the “#Trump virus.”

The #Chinese press has been quick to highlight each time that the #United #States broke a new negative record, when politicians prioritized election campaign spending over health services and how a long and chaotic presidential election has led to extreme political polarization in the country.

#If there is one message that #China wants to start the new year with, it is that the country closes 2020 with unity and prosperity, while others only see greater divisions and instability.

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