Advertisement
China Briefing | China may win the war against coronavirus but lose the battle of the narrative
- Healthy tourism spending during Golden Week has stirred national pride and given the media an excuse to dial up the propaganda
- But a Pew Research Center survey calls into question Beijing’s narrative that anti-China sentiment is the preserve of a small group of Western politicians
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
The people thronged on the Bund, Shanghai’s iconic waterfront; drone shots of bumper to bumper traffic jams on major national highways stretching kilometres; and shoppers packed the Taikoo Li Sanlitun, a Beijing downtown complex owned by Swire Properties, a Hong Kong developer.
Those sample images of economic activities and mass migrations of people are typically associated with China’s Golden Week holiday, which is built around the October 1 National Day celebrations and coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, which extended the break to eight days from the usual seven.
But those images have special significance this time as this is the first major holiday since the country has brought the coronavirus pandemic under control.
Advertisement
As the holiday ended on Thursday, tourism officials estimated 637 million domestic trips had been made during the holiday and the tourists’ spending was tallied at 466.56 billion yuan (US$68 billion), higher than expectations as officials previously forecast 550 million trips.
While these figures may be considerably lower than last year’s 782 million trips and 649.71 billion yuan, they are still truly impressive, a clear sign that China, which first reported the virus outbreak late December last year, has largely returned to normal.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x