My Take | Shanghai Disneyland’s Covid-19 scare exposes media bias
- Incident exposes predetermined reporting templates from both domestic Chinese and mainstream American news media, with one US report describing the response as ‘extreme’ while a Chinese news item calls the experience ‘romantic’
The reporting of it, though, by the domestic Chinese media and mainstream American outlets, tells very different stories. They are like yin and yang and in a sense, both sides have been more or less accurate. It is, therefore, an instructive moment on understanding and interpreting China today; you do need to read and consider more than one side. This is, of course, obvious. Many people, on one side or the other, just choose not to do it.
Here’s a typical American headline, from Bloomberg: “Shanghai Disneyland Lockdown Shows China’s Extreme Covid Tactics”. Note the word “extreme”. In the story summary, it says “Beijing [is] sticking to zero-covid even as other proponents pivot”. Interestingly, it then tied to an entirely separate story about “a baby in border town [Ruili, in the west of Yunnan province] repeatedly locked down was tested 74 times”.
The rest of the article gives the impression of a military-type lockdown you see in Hollywood movies.
“Staff quietly sealed the amusement park,” it said. “People in hazmat suits streamed in through the gates, preparing to test everyone for Covid-19 before they could leave for the day.
“Nearly 34,000 people at Disneyland underwent testing, which ended close to midnight, long after the festivities at the park are usually finished.”
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Shanghai Disneyland shut down after visitor tests positive for Covid-19