Photo: Chongqing, by tom_stromer (CC BY-NC 2.0)

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When the coronavirus virus was first discovered in Wuhan in December, Chinese authorities immediately acted to censor independent news and information about the virus and its potential threat. In subsequent months, as the virus turned into a global pandemic, the government reached overseas with disinformation and propaganda in an effort to rewrite the history of the virus and their role in its spread. The European Commission recently named China for the first time as a source of disinformation, saying that the government, along with Russia’s, “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighbourhood, and globally.” Jennifer Rankin at The Guardian reports on the statement issued by the Commission:

French politicians were furious when a Chinese embassy website claimed in mid-April, at the height of Europe’s pandemic, that care workers had abandoned their jobs leaving residents to die. The unnamed Chinese diplomat also claimed falsely that 80 French lawmakers had used a racist slur against the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“I believe if we have evidence we should not shy away from naming and shaming,” Vĕra Jourová, a European commission vice-president, told reporters. “What we also witnessed is a surge in narratives undermining our democracies and in effect our response to the crisis, for example the claim there are secret US biological laboratories on former Soviet republics has been spread by both pro-Kremlin outlets, as well as Chinese officials and state media.”

“I strongly believe that a geopolitically strong EU can only materialise if we are assertive,” Jourová said, alluding to the aim of the European commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, for the body to have more clout on the world stage. [Source]

Even before the COVID outbreak, the E.U. had struggled to define its relationship with China, after labeling the country a “systemic rival” amid disagreements over trade, investment, and human rights issues in April. Last month, the E.U. faced criticism after it was revealed that a report on disinformation during COVID-19 had apparently been watered down to soften criticism of China. Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post reports further on the recent statement in the broader context of E.U.-China ties:

It was the European Union’s highest-level and most forceful criticism yet of the way Beijing has handled its messaging about the pandemic. The bloc, along with individual European capitals, has been struggling to strike a balance between the United States and China, two rivals that are increasingly at odds on a range of security and diplomatic issues, including the pandemic response.

“The pandemic showed that disinformation does not only harm the health of our citizens, but also the health of our democracies,” Vera Jourova, the senior E.U. official charged with rule-of-law issues, told reporters, unveiling a list of recommendations for the 27 E.U. member states to help promote facts and combat misinformation.

[…] It also called on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to strengthen its fact-checking operation and to label and combat inaccurate information on their sites. Several companies are already taking part in a voluntary E.U. transparency initiative that attempts to make the sources and narratives of disinformation more transparent. But officials on Wednesday asked for monthly reports, instead of the current intermittent schedule, and for more robust efforts overall.

[…] The E.U. has been walking a fine line with China, wary of jeopardizing Chinese investments in European economies at a time when the pandemic has inflicted grievous harm. European leaders have also been seeking Chinese cooperation on the scientific effort to combat the coronavirus. E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell spoke Tuesday to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to set up a virtual summit between top E.U. and Chinese leaders, which they hope can take place later this month. [Source]

As the E.U. statement came out, the Chinese government was launching its own message about disinformation during the COVID crisis:

Quite the pairing of headlines. Of course, it's no coincidence that Chinese state media is stepping up its messaging on disinformation as the EU addresses China's "disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighborhood, & globally":https://t.co/LBmU3zPLRE pic.twitter.com/4TqBLtV2O0

— Julian Gewirtz (@JulianGewirtz) June 10, 2020

Twitter and other social media platforms have been a primary front in the disinformation and propaganda war waged by Chinese officials, notably by several high-profile diplomats who post aggressive and combative messages from their personal accounts. A recent investigation by The New York Times looks into the use of Twitter by thousands of accounts who appear to exist solely to amplify Chinese government messages:

Behind China’s combative new messengers, a murky hallelujah chorus of sympathetic accounts has emerged to repost them and cheer them on. Many are new to the platform. Some do little else but amplify the Beijing line.

[…] Of the roughly 4,600 accounts that reposted China’s leading envoys and state-run news outlets during a recent week, many acted suspiciously, The Times found. One in six tweeted with extremely high frequency despite having few followers, as if they were being used as loudspeakers, not as sharing platforms.

Nearly one in seven tweeted almost nothing of their own, instead filling their feeds with reposts of the official Chinese accounts and others.

In all, one third of the accounts had been created in the last three months, as the war of words with the Trump administration heated up. One in seven had zero followers. [Source]

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Post tags: coronavirus, diplomacy, disinformation, EU, Europe relations

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The State Council Information Office on Sunday published the white paper “Fighting COVID-19: China’s Action,” a glowing account of the government response to the novel coronavirus outbreak that also defends against criticism Beijing has earned for its opacity and misinformation about the virus, from both domestic commentators and foreign diplomats. Reuters reported on SCIO comments at the unveiling of the white paper:

“Some foreign politicians and media have presumed guilt for the origin of the virus, put labels on the virus and politicized the epidemic,” Xu Lin, head of State Council Information Office, said at a briefing in Beijing Sunday. “The fabricated assumptions — like the ‘China origins of the virus,’ ‘China concealed the virus’ and ‘it’s China’s responsibility’ — are utterly baseless, unreasonable and disrespectful of science.”

[…]  China has adamantly defended its actions. It’s also sent medical supplies and doctors to countries battling infections, with President Xi Jinping pledging to make any Chinese-developed vaccine a “global public good.” At the same time, Beijing has sought to cast doubt on the theory that the virus originated in China, with a foreign ministry official having promoted conspiracy theories that linked the outbreak to the U.S. military.

The white paper published Sunday by the State Council Council Information Office describes as a “calculated slur” accusations that China concealed information about the virus or that it didn’t disclose the actual number of deaths. It also says Beijing shared information in “clear and unambiguous terms” but that this was ignored by certain countries, which now seek to blame China for their own failures. […] [Source]

On Monday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Hua Chunying was questioned about the SCIO report:

China News Service: Yesterday China’s State Council Information Office released a white paper on the country’s fight against COVID-19. But some foreign media say that the white paper is meant to defend China’s behavior. What is your comment?

Hua Chunying: China’s State Council Information Office yesterday issued a white paper entitled “Fighting COVID-19: China in Action” and held a press conference where officials of relevant authorities outlined its content.

China issued the white paper not to defend itself, but to keep a record. The history of the combat against the pandemic should not be tainted by lies and misleading information; it should be recorded with the correct collective memory of all mankind. This white paper has documented China’s arduous efforts in fighting COVID-19, outlined our best practice in epidemic prevention, control and treatment, shared the Chinese people’s experience and feelings going through the difficult times, and expressed our confidence and strength in solidarity, cooperation and victory against the virus.

As COVID-19 continues spreading, the world is still going through tough times. China will continue to uphold the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and work with the international community for solidarity, cooperation and an early victory against the pandemic. [Source]

The Office of the MOFA Spokesperson’s official Weibo account cited Hua to further spread her message at home: “The history of the combat against the pandemic should not be tainted by lies and misleading information; it should leave a correct collective memory for all mankind.”

Many netizens called the comment into question, reminding the spokesperson of Beijing’s tireless track record of tainting reality with lies and misinformation, some of which her department then spreads to the world. CDT Chinese editors have archived exemplary responses to the MOFA spokesperson’s post, several of which are translated below:

@ 普通网友张小晃: “Leave a correct collective memory for all of mankind” this sentence immediately made my computer crash. Can I ask, what does “leave” mean? And “correct”? “Collective memory”? What is the “correct collective memory of all mankind”? Why does a representative of such formidable state power use the narrowest and most exclusive wording?

@LuckyRaaachel: What is correct, anyway? Who has the authority to define what is “correct,” and by what virtues were they given that authority? What will be the fate of those people with incorrect memories?

@开开就是开开呀: “Correct collective memory,” emmmmmm. Why don’t they just erase the memories in everyone’s heads? Wipe it all clean and write it back up in accordance with authoritative drafts [common language from state censorship directives].

@Juvenapple: Huh, is a memory “correct” or “incorrect”? Shouldn’t “truth” be the higher values we seek? Correctness can only be composed of an infinite amount of truth.

@圆香芹啊: Correct collective memory, sounds like North Korea.

@塔奇库玛110: Is there a correct collective memory of the Three Years of Famine? How can we talk about a proper collective memory when we haven’t even reflected deeply on the Cultural Revolution?

@散热鸵鸟: Is the foreign ministry a Nazi department? Is there a correct collective memory of Auschwitz?

@焦溜丸子好吃: Memory is made of a mixture of personal experience and feeling, as every individual’s experience is different, so too is everyone’s memory. No person or institution has the right to define what memory is correct or incorrect. So disgusting.

@Tin_Oxide: Whatever the case, I’ve set up a folder to store a whole bunch of incorrect memories.

@De_kleine_Prinz: “Fake! Everything is fake!”

@海怪先生遛犀牛: On January 3, you were still admonishing Dr. Li. So, why was December 27 reported [in the white paper] as the time it was given high-priority?

@Cherubear: I want to know, what correct memories are left with the families of those patients who died before they could get into a hospital?

@孔财神儒商俱乐部：As for the fight against the epidemic, everyone feels and remembers it differently. If we’re all left with only a so-called “correct collective memory,” how is that not brainwashing?  [Chinese]

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Post tags: coronavirus, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netizen Voices, propaganda, white paper

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The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.

All previously posted content on the “street vendor economy” must be deleted. Please do not hype further. (June 5, 2020) [Chinese]

At the recent National People’s Congress, Premier Li Keqiang hailed the potential of resurgent street vending to address economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Bloomberg News reports on an apparent U-turn against this strategy:

Following a surge of interest in the topic on social media and sharp gains for local stocks associated with equipment needed to sell food on the street, local governments and state media over the weekend damped expectations that the kind of informal street selling once ubiquitous in China would be welcomed back wholesale.

A Saturday commentary by Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Beijing municipal government, labeled the “street stall economy” as unsuitable for the capital, and said the city hasn’t relaxed rules on peddlers. Other state media followed suit, with some editorials arguing that there were many problems including food hygiene and product quality. [Read more from Liu Zhen at South China Morning Post.]

With China facing its worst economic slump since the 1970s this year, the government is pushing to keep workers in jobs and laid-off employees diverted into retraining or other sectors. At the same time, the premier’s endorsement of street selling at the National People’s Congress last month raised eyebrows, as it’s a form of commerce at odds with President Xi Jinping’s vision of China as a developed, high-tech superpower.

[…] On social media, trending topics have shifted from enthusiasm over the return of the vendor economy to those questioning it. The hash-tag “street stall economy” has been taken down from the Twitter-like site Weibo, whereas it was active and searchable a few days ago. Taking its place, the top suggested hash-tags are now “the heating-up in street stall economy shouldn’t turn into a fever” and “street stall economy is not suitable for Beijing.” [Source]

Much of China’s economy was shuttered as the government fought to contain the outbreak, and drastically suppressed international demand has constrained its reopening. The country’s official unemployment rate remains at just 6%, but The Wall Street Journal’s Chao Deng and Jonathan Cheng reported on Sunday that “anecdotal evidence and economists’ calculations suggest that China’s labor market is in worse shape than official government data show.” Moreover, “the country’s threadbare unemployment-insurance system covers less than half of the country’s urban labor force and less than 20% of migrant workers,” leaving many scrambling for income. As NPR’s Emily Feng reports, millions of former factory workers and other migrants have returned to family farmland. This fallback is used to justify their exclusion from formal unemployment figures, but WSJ’s Deng and Cheng cited an economist and a migrant worker’s concurring views that it is not a generally viable option.

Quartz’s Jane Li reported on the background to the “street vendor economy” drive last week:

“China can only become stronger if its markets, corporates and small businesses can survive and develop! We will give you guys support,” said Li, making the remarks while chatting with a man selling malaban, a street snack popular for its spicy sauce, in the city of Yantai in eastern Shandong province.

Prior to Li’s remarks, Beijing recently sent other welcoming signals to street vendors, marking a significant shift from the past—when municipal officials used to relocate, evict or fine them as China sought to “civilize” its cities into tidy, shiny places that evoke the gadgets its high-tech economy produces.

China’s Central Civilization Committee office, a government department that oversees the implementation of the ruling party’s ideologies, announced in late May (link in Chinese) that the presence of street stalls would no longer be considered a negative factor in its criteria for selecting “civilized cities” this year. The assessment, held every three years since 2005, is one of the highest government honors a Chinese city can get, and an important political achievement for local officials hoping to rise up the Communist Party hierarchy.

To achieve that honor, officials dispatched chengguan, or urban law enforcement tasked with keeping order on city streets, after vendors. Under heavy pressure from supervisors, they were often accused of using excessive force and frequently ended up in violent clashes with vendors. In 2013, the execution of Xia Junfeng, a street hawker who got the death penalty after he stabbed and killed two chengguan during a fight, stirred public anger. Many believed Xia, a laid-off factory worker who took to selling grilled meat, was acting out of self-defense after he had been surrounded and beaten by some 10 officers. [Source]

The same year, watermelon vendor Deng Zhengjia was beaten to death with his own scale weights after chengguan fined him for trading without a license and took some melons as a bonus. Reports of chengguan now being directed to help revitalize the sector struck many as surreal: SCMP’s Zhou Xin cited a WeChat comment asking “who would have thought the day would come when family planning officials would beg people to have a second child and Chengguan would invite vendors to go out onto the street?”

Last week, an online video promoting the “heartwarming moment” when a chengguan paid for his food sparked mockery from users noting the “high-level black” implication that this was a remarkable occasion. From rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan:

太感人了，城管付钱在地摊买小吃！ pic.twitter.com/TIXKKzCcX2

— 刘晓原 (@liu_xiaoyuan) June 6, 2020

So moving, a chengguan pays for his snacks at a food stall!

Posts celebrating often (but not invariably) basic acts of responsibility or restraint are a staple of some of the less belligerent state media Twitter accounts.

Economic anxieties and the street vendor economy have become recent themes on the “wailing wall” of comments under the late doctor and whistleblower Li Wenliang’s final Weibo post, where for months thousands of users have left messages ranging from political comments to personal confessions. From a pair of recent compilations by CDT Chinese editors:

@固执的西瓜瓜：… and then there’s Chinese medicine and the cooling-off period for divorces. It’s true that there are upsides, but sometimes people spend so long deliberating that they never make a choice. And then we need to be careful about this street vendor economy, which doesn’t have much capacity for forming value chains or adding value, and can hardly prop up an economy as huge as ours. If they turn it into a fully fledged [political] movement, that’ll send a really bad signal.

@田丽军doctor: Picture comment

“[Heartwarming public buzz] Recently, street vendors’ stalls have fired up, and night markets have reopened. The leaping flames, the plumes of steam, the captivating scents, the noisy hawking … these familiar sights and sensations have sprung up in streets and alleyways all over the country. According to an incomplete count, up till now, 27 regions across the country have urged the development of the street vendor economy. Public buzz is most evident on the streets! Together, let’s welcome a #summerofbuzz!”

@再见卡其：Business is terrible this year, Dr. Li!

@万福顺安：Dr. Li, I really hope that when I wake up tomorrow there’ll be lots of shop orders, but … [Chinese]

@浅笑翩然6：Hello Dr. Li, now the people are allowed to open stalls. I hope the Chinese people can make a slightly better living.

@彩马哒哒：Recently things have been really difficult, I’d like to open a stall too … unfortunately it’s not allowed in Beijing

@A如此生活三十年：It’s because of the pandemic. We have no work. Now I don’t know what to do … sometimes life is really exhausting …

@YourSanta：Dr. Li, remember when I came here in February and told you I might not be able to graduate? Now it’s June, and I graduated successfully, and even nabbed a district scholarship. Ah, but it’s really hard to get a job. I haven’t been able to find work, all my relatives look down on me. Life is hard. I hope your son will grow up happy and healthy, and won’t have all these worries. Good luck! [Chinese]

See more related content at CDT Chinese.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. Some instructions are issued by local authorities or to specific sectors, and may not apply universally across China. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. See CDT’s collection of Directives from the Ministry of Truth since 2011.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), get_post_time('Y'). | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chengguan, coronavirus, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, economic growth, economic policy, economic recovery, employment, Li Keqiang, li wenliang, Li Wenliang's Wailing Wall, migrant workers, social inequality, street vendors, unemployment

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