China’s state media is struggling, and censors are working overtime as Beijing seeks a coherent narrative following the abrupt reversal of its signature zero-Covid policy, AFP reported.
For years, the country’s propaganda machine heralded zero-Covid as proof of the Communist Party’s authoritarian rule and the wisdom of powerful President Xi Jinping.
However, its usual mouthpieces have been left to spin the decision to scrap strict travel restrictions, quarantines, and lockdowns as a victory even as cases continue to rise.
“State media has not come up with a grand narrative to fully legitimise the sudden and radical change,” Kecheng Fang, an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong told AFP. “They were caught off guard.”
According to AFP, the “inconsistent messaging” indicated that the propaganda apparatus may lack adequate party directives on how to frame the situation.
How China is Controlling its Media
Some outlets have hinted that all is not well, with reports this week from state news agency Xinhua and state broadcaster CCTV urging people to use Covid medicines “rationally” and highlighting government efforts to ensure supply.
However, government-run media outlets have refrained from reporting the grimmer side of the exit wave, instead attempting to assuage fears about the pathogen’s potency and portraying the policy shift as a logical, controlled, and triumphant withdrawal.
“Looking back on the last three years, we have waged a stirring battle against the pandemic and passed an arduous historical test,” said an editorial published last week in the party-run People’s Daily newspaper.
Zero-Covid “demonstrated the superiority of China’s socialist system”, it said, adding that “optimising” the policy now would help to adapt to new virus variants while “putting the lives and health of the people and masses first”.
There has also been a reluctance to address the growing caseload at Covid.
On Friday, a party-run newspaper quoted an official estimate of 500,000 new cases per day in the eastern city of Qingdao. An AFP review of the article revealed that the figure had been removed by Saturday.
While Xi’s recent diplomatic engagements have dominated headlines, he has yet to publicly comment on the collapse of what was previously a signature policy.
A similar sense of unease has pervaded Chinese social media, where censors routinely scrub out politically sensitive content.
According to an AFP review, several posts on the popular Weibo platform purporting to describe Covid-related deaths appeared to have been censored by Friday afternoon.
They included several blanked-out photos purportedly taken at crematoriums, as well as a post purportedly from the mother of a two-year-old girl who died after contracting the virus.
According to censorship watchdog GreatFire.org, posts about medicine shortages and price gouging were also removed.
In response to the perceived taboo surrounding Covid deaths, social media users have posted angry or sardonic comments.
Many people were outraged after a state-linked local news outlet reported that Wu Guanying, the designer of the mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had died of a “severe cold” at the age of 67.
One commenter compared the phrase to China’s dictatorial neighbour North Korea, while another wondered if it was now illegal to say “Covid.”
Other critical posts, however, remained online as of Friday afternoon, including many that chastised the government for its perceived lack of an exit strategy.
“Did they truly believe they could eradicate the virus through lockdowns?” one post read.
“Three years, and they never planned for when it couldn’t be controlled?”
Fang, the assistant professor, said Chinese officials would “eventually find a way to frame everything as a victory, maybe after the infection situation stabilises”.
“The unique method of counting Covid deaths already provides a foundation for that,” he added., referring to a new government definition of virus deaths that excludes many fatalities.
According to National Health Commission figures, China officially recorded no new deaths from the virus on Saturday.
A Weibo hashtag relating to how the country defines Covid deaths was censored, counting only those who died from respiratory failure after testing positive.
China to stop publishing daily Covid figures
The National Health Commission (NHC) announced on Sunday that China will no longer publish daily figures for Covid-19 cases and deaths, ending a practise that began in early 2020.
After Beijing quickly dismantled its zero-Covid strategy, cities across China have struggled with rising infections, a shortage of pharmaceuticals, and overcrowded hospital wards.
“As of today, we will no longer publish daily information on the epidemic,” the NHC said, without explaining why.
However, the end of strict testing mandates has made caseloads virtually impossible to track, and authorities have narrowed the medical definition of a Covid death, which experts believe will reduce the number of fatalities attributable to the virus.
“The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will publish information about the outbreak for reference and research purposes,” the NHC stated, without specifying the type or frequency with which the CDC will publish data.
People in China, who see a large disparity between official statistics and infections in their families and social circles, reacted cynically to the decision.
“Finally, they’re waking up and realising they can’t fool people any longer,” one Weibo user wrote.
“This was the best and largest fake statistics manufacturing office in the country,” another user said.
With inputs from AFP
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