China’s Wolf Warrior diplomats battle on Twitter for control of coronavirus narrative
- Donald Trump’s favourite social media platform is the latest arena for back-and-forth blame game between US and China
- The real audience for strident Chinese diplomacy is probably at home, in an effort to fuel nationalist sentiment, analysts say
Chinese diplomats have been particularly aggressive on Twitter, with many joining the platform last year, amplifying Beijing’s efforts to contain the epidemic, its aid and support to other countries, and heavily criticising the US for its response to the pandemic.
“China has been updating the US on the coronavirus and its response since Jan. 3,” China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying tweeted on Thursday. “And now blame China for delay? Seriously?”
Zhao, who has amassed more than 430,000 followers on Twitter, has been seen as the face of Beijing’s more belligerent diplomatic approach. He has tweeted more than 58,000 times, including his repeating of fringe claims about the US Army bringing the coronavirus to China.
Trump referred to the tweets on Wednesday, saying that he called the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” despite criticism it would encourage racism and xenophobia in the US, since “China tried to say at one point, maybe they stopped, that it was caused by American soldiers. That can’t happen … It comes from China.”
Morgan Ortagus, spokeswoman for the US State Department, said in a tweet on Friday that Chinese authorities had already ordered Covid-19 virus samples destroyed – also without providing proof.
Hua, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, fired off five more tweets on Saturday evening in response to Ortagus, with messages including “Lying and slander won’t make the US great” and “Scapegoating China won’t help”.
Beijing’s Twitter apparatus has pushed back collectively on the “Chinese virus” label. State news agency Xinhua on Friday tweeted that the virus should be called the “Trump Pandemic” in the US. Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands Xu Hong tweeted: “What Trump said is groundless and full of racism, totally ignored the great effort and sacrifice made by Chinese people!”
Observers say the antagonistic tone has been ineffective in changing the narrative among international audiences, but does serve to fuel nationalism in China, where the platform is blocked. An estimated 10 per cent of mainland internet users – mostly, rich, educated and urban – are able to bypass controls and access Twitter, and the spats are also reported in state media outlets.
“Indeed, this is just the state propaganda apparatus extending to Western social media platforms,” Yuan Zeng, a media lecturer at the University of Leeds, said.
The targeted criticism of the US has made Twitter the latest front in a series of clashes between the two powers – from trade and technology to ideology and the battle for influence across the world.
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But analysts say the effectiveness of Beijing’s messaging is muted for international audiences, such as those in the US, with the tweets by Chinese diplomats likely aimed more at the domestic audience and overseas Chinese.
Jonathan Hassid, associate professor at Iowa State University studying Chinese news media, said Chinese media reports on the ambassadorial tweets, which were “often seen as inappropriate to host countries”, shaped the domestic narrative that Beijing was fighting back against global pressure.
“Given that China’s Twitter users are much richer, better educated and more urban than average, this is a group the [Chinese Communist Party] CCP is keen to ensure stays content,” he said.
Ardi Bouwers, media specialist at consulting firm China Circle in the Netherlands, said many of the Chinese diplomats’ tweets – trying to change the story away from China’s responsibility to how it is helping the world – seemed “tone-deaf” to European and US audiences now grappling with the pandemic.
Bouwers said it was likely the diplomats recognised that their more belligerent tweets could be helpful for their own careers, with the more outspoken individuals, including Zhao, apparently not told to “lower their volume”.
“It may be that the severity and the sharpness may be the same but the fact that it is now targeting the US and the US president, makes it more far-reaching,” Bouwers said.
“I would like to say that all of this is just Twitter and it’s OK, but looking at how the antes are upped almost every time I see something, it looks like it could spin out of control.”
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