The Chinese regime uses English-language media to emphasize the Western defeat of Covid-19, in order to enhance its international standing.

Photos of Chinese aid goods landing at Heathrow airport, UK, over the weekend, with boxes labeled "Stay calm and treat nCoV," posted and published by Xinhua news agency. spread to British audiences as "mask foreign policy". On Twitter, a social network banned in China, some young diplomats shared suspicions that the West had created nCoV to discredit the Chinese government.

Professor Kerry Brown, an Asia-Pacific program assistant at research organization Chatham House, said that China is trying to turn the national disaster into a global victory. "They are trying to counter some of the political views on this issue in the US and try to control the issue before getting out of control."

China has long complained about Western media reporting unfairly and recently deporting many Western journalists. Over the years, the country has invested a huge amount of money in English news infrastructure to promote its image around the world.

At the forefront of this work is the 24-hour English language news channel. CGTN began broadcasting news from its new office in west London, England, claiming to have a mission of "reporting from a Chinese perspective".

Last week, the channel broadcast a kind of inspirational story about Chinese doctors rescuing patients during a pandemic, videos of relief shipments to Europe and Africa, and a picture of China's economy. recover after blockade. In addition, there was other strange information, such as an Ethiopian man who believes he can prevent nCoV infection by putting garlic on his nose.

On the afternoon of April 2, CGTN aired a series of interviews with Chinese diplomats and health workers throughout Europe, in which the host said, "China is sharing its anti-Covid experience. 19 invaluable to countries trying to contain the crisis. "

The channel also interviewed the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands, who criticized the Western media's coverage of aid activity: "Do they really want China to stand side by side? I think Western public opinion is highly appreciated. China and Chinese support. "

In addition to television channels, Twitter, social networks banned in China, recently also became a new propaganda front. In the past year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and more Chinese diplomats joined Twitter, posted articles in English and expressed their views on issues ranging from human rights to the US-China trade war.

Zhao Lian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman who was compared to President Trump for nationalism on Twitter, last month shared links to conspiracy theory websites, claiming that the U.S.-made nCoV out.

Cyber security researchers Record Future said they noticed a sharp change in tone on Chinese social media accounts since mid-February, in which the country sought to turn China from "origin." of the pandemic to a global leadership in the Covid-19 response. "

Following this approach, dozens of People's Daily articles appeared in the British Daily Telegraph under a lucrative sponsorship deal with headlines like "Why do some people see efforts to stop the heroic nCoV?" is China's inhumane? " Many of these have been removed from the Daily Telegraph in recent days, BuzzFeed News reported.

Chinese companies also make every effort to show their role in the pandemic. Huawei Corporation has donated thousands of masks to the UK with the slogan "Together we support the National Health System (NHS)".

It is unclear whether Western audiences will be affected by news from China. The number of viewers of CGTN has not been published, while Xinhua's Facebook page in England has very little interaction. However, Professor Brown argued that China's propaganda was too conservative and revealing compared to the more effective and secretive propaganda in countries like Russia.

France has also become wary of Chinese efforts to capitalize on the pandemic to praise the superiority of the political system. In an internal note, CAPS, a French Ministry of Foreign Affairs research organization, warned China would control globalization and global leadership in the future after Covid-19, if the democratic governments did not give come up with better solutions when the crisis is over.

"Even if China could not claim its leadership as what the US assumed a few years ago, China would have prevailed when it made itself important, even a central role," This version said.