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Illustration: Henry Wong

Coronavirus: how China can really win over sceptical hearts and minds abroad

  • The country has sought to present itself as a model of confidence in a crisis
  • But it might be better off taking a more modest course to improve its international standing, observers say

This is the latest instalment of a series looking back at the effects of the coronavirus outbreak one year after it first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Here, we examine how China has tried to present itself as a success story as its international standing has fallen. Please support us in our mission to bring you quality journalism.

As the number of new coronavirus cases surpassed 100,000 in the United States on election day in November, China’s political elite assembled in Beijing to hail their country’s victory over the pandemic.
“Faced with a complicated international environment, the difficult targets of domestic development and especially the heavy impact of coronavirus pandemic, the Communist Party’s leadership with Xi Jinping as the core ... led the party, the country and its people ... to prevail over all sorts of risks,” read the official communique of the party plenum, a four-day top-level meeting.

From China, the contrast was stark.

It was a case of “order in China and the chaos in the West”, with China’s success attributed to the unchallenged leadership of the party, according to a senior security official at the heart of the country’s messaging on disease control.

When Wuhan went into lockdown, thousands of local heroes went into action

It is a message of competence in the face of crisis that has gone almost unchallenged at home.

But it is also not one widely shared beyond its borders. In the aftermath of the pandemic, China’s reputation in the developed world has plunged, with the country drawing scrutiny over everything from its makeshift hospitals, to the muffling of its critics and the intentions behind its mask and vaccine programmes.

Diplomatic and health experts say that international hostility stems from Beijing’s problematic public line on the pandemic, including its refusal to admit initial missteps in disease control.

Rehabilitation of that reputation rests on more openness and acknowledging that mistakes were made, they say.

01:50

Coronavirus: Hebei province reports 120 new local cases in China’s biggest Covid-19 rise in months

Coronavirus: Hebei province reports 120 new local cases in China’s biggest Covid-19 rise in months

The results of a survey in the Czech Republic in November are typical.

The poll conducted by Palacky University indicated that in most European countries, over half of the population were convinced that the coronavirus either came from Chinese eating wildlife or was engineered in a Chinese lab and spread intentionally.

Despite China’s efforts to counter that perception, the country’s reputation on the global stage is the opposite of the responsible international player that it has tried to present.

Beijing has sought to frame itself as a model of efficiency in bringing the disease under control.

A year after the first cluster of coronavirus cases was detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the country is running more or less as normal although there have been smaller outbreaks around the country.

There is little public reference to mistakes. Gone are the once-loud public warnings about disease control.

In February, senior leaders including President Xi Jinping, talked openly about the health risks from the country’s trade in wildlife. And in May, some lawmakers attending the annual national legislative congress formally submitted proposals to amend Chinese laws to protect whistle-blowers in an emergency.

Also missing is the discussion on death tolls. In April, health authorities in Wuhan amended the number of dead by adding more than 300 people to the list of fatalities. They acknowledged there had been unreported deaths from the coronavirus in the initial months when the city was first caught off guard by the disease.

There are signs that the pathogen might have been more widespread than previously thought Another national study of blood antibodies in December suggested that over 4 per cent of the 11 million people in Wuhan might have been exposed to the coronavirus.

Coronavirus: after the outbreak, asymptomatic cases lurked in Wuhan, study finds

A turning point came about six months ago, according to Huang Yanzhong, director of global health studies at Seton Hall University’s school of diplomacy and international relations in New Jersey.

“The white paper in June was a watershed moment … China was basically saying it has done nothing wrong,” Huang said.

The white paper was the Chinese government’s first coherent and systematic narrative of the initial outbreak of the pandemic.

The document hailed China’s “tenacity and solidarity” and said China shared information on the pandemic “in an open, transparent, and responsible manner and in accordance with the law”.

“In this battle, China will always stand together with other countries,” it said.

There was no mention of missteps or why at the height of the Chinese cases in February, the party bosses of Wuhan and the province of Hubei were suddenly sacked.

“The replacement of key officials in Hubei and Wuhan says a lot about the missteps, otherwise why fire them?” Huang said.

“I think the international community could understand that China is a victim itself and has lessons to learn, if it talks about the missteps by the local government.”

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It has not always been impossible for authorities to acknowledge their mistakes.

In April 2003, a week after Beijing fired a handful of local officials for covering up the Sars outbreak, then premier Wen Jiabao did so in an address to Asean leaders in Bangkok.

“In face of the outbreak of this sudden epidemic, we lack experience with its prevention and control,” Wen said.

“The crisis management mechanism and the work of certain localities and departments are not quite adequate.”

Severe acute respiratory syndrome, also caused by a previously unknown type of coronavirus, ended up killing more than 900 people around the world. The death toll from Covid-19 stands at more than 1.9 million worldwide.

Coronavirus: Wuhan’s rocking now the dark days are over

For China to better win the hearts and minds in the international community now, it should share more stories on how it learned its lessons in the early days, said Wang Huiyao, founder of the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based non-governmental think tank.

“China could be more forthright in acknowledging there was a learning process for itself in the beginning,” said Wang, who is also an adviser to the State Council, China’s cabinet.

He said China could also amplify its willingness to work with World Health Organization investigators to look into the origins of the coronavirus.

After WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus openly expressed disappointment with the Chinese side, Beijing finally allowed a team of international scientists into Wuhan to trace the origin of the pathogen. However, two of them tested positive for antibodies and stayed behind in Singapore for further tests.

02:09

Finding origin of coronavirus 'could be long journey’, says WHO mission leader on way to Wuhan

Finding origin of coronavirus 'could be long journey’, says WHO mission leader on way to Wuhan

Huang, from Seton Hall, agreed that China should be more transparent about the joint investigation.

“People ask, if Italy can do blood sample tests to trace the origin, why are those in Wuhan not doing the same?” he said, referring to controversial research suggesting the coronavirus was circulating in Italy before it was first detected in China.

But Huang acknowledged the search was complicated by US President Donald Trump’s declaration that China would pay a “big price” for Covid-19.

In this context, China’s defensive position on the origin issue would “make perfect sense politically and psychologically”, Huang said.

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In the meantime, China’s top epidemiologists have also started promoting theories that the pathogen could have originally arrived in China via imported frozen seafood or other channels.

Elizabeth Economy, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said China’s defensiveness on the origins of the virus was counterproductive to its efforts to present itself as a success in fighting the pandemic.

“Its disinformation campaign concerning the origins of the virus and insults about how other countries managed the pandemic caused the international community to focus not on China’s success in arresting the spread of the virus but instead on how coercive and unattractive Chinese diplomacy had become,” Economy said.

“The story is not about whether China is to blame, it is about the virus’ origin, transmission, and mutation.”

She said China’s image would be bolstered if it developed an effective vaccine and became a major provider to many other countries.

“However, to the extent that China trumpets its efforts or demands recognition for its good work, it will diminish not enhance the diplomatic value of its contribution.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Success under scrutiny
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