China has reportedly launched a “PR blitz” to change perceptions of Wuhan, the city whose name is now synonymous with the pandemic’s ground zero. Agence-France Presse has this report:
China is recasting Wuhan as a heroic coronavirus victim and trying to throw doubt on the pandemic’s origin story as it aims to seize the narrative at a time of growing global distrust of Beijing.
The PR blitz plays out daily in comments by Chinese officials and lavish state media coverage of a “reborn” Wuhan that trumpets China’s epidemic-control efforts and economic recovery while the United States struggles.
The drive peaked in the past week as Chinese primary schools welcomed back students with considerable fanfare and Wuhan hosted executives from dozens of multinationals, from Panasonic to Dow and Nokia, on a highly choreographed tour of the central Chinese city.
“There are few places in the world today where you don’t need a mask and can gather,” a Chinese official, Lin Songtian, told the executives, implying that Wuhan was one of those places.
“This testifies to Wuhan’s triumph over the virus and that (the city) is back in business.”
Lost in this retelling, however, is that a wet market in Wuhan is widely believed to be ground zero for the pandemic.
China’s foreign minister suggested on August 28 during a European outreach trip that the virus might not have emerged in China.
The drive indicates China recognises Covid-19’s damage to its brand and wants to leverage its relatively successful recovery to counter growing international challenges, analysts said.
China faces foreign bitterness over the virus and an initial cover-up attempt by Wuhan officials, plus criticism of Beijing’s tightening grip on Hong Kong and generally more aggressive international posture.
“Beijing wants the narrative to be: we handled it, we can help you handle it and (hopefully) we’re the first to have a vaccine that works,” said Kelsey Broderick, Asia analyst with Eurasia Group.
“That’s really the only way China can come out ahead of the idea that a wet market in Wuhan started this crisis.”
The fumbling US pandemic response provides a clear opening, said Yun Jiang, director of Australian National University’s China Policy Centre.
“The fact that the US is not only not doing enough, but actually doing things that go against American interests, is a big help to China,” she said.
The three-day Wuhan tour also included foreign media outlets and ended Saturday.
The city of 11 million – which suffered more than 80 percent of China’s 4,634 Covid-19 deaths – has come a long way since the pandemic’s grim early days, when a suffocating weeks-long lockdown rendered it a ghost town.
No new local transmissions have been reported in months, traffic jams are back, shoppers cram malls, and al fresco diners gobble up the city’s signature spicy crayfish dish.
But not everyone is taking a victory lap.
Many Wuhan citizens express persistent concern over an uneven recovery and fear of new outbreaks.
“The economy has really declined. The benefit of even coming to work is questionable,” said Yi Xinhua, 51, who sells tofu from her stall at a Wuhan wet market.
And memories of a subsequent virus cluster in May, which triggered a citywide effort to test millions, remain fresh.
“Everyone is afraid the epidemic will return, you know? The summer is over, and winter is coming,” said Yi.
“We’ve recovered a bit. But if the virus comes back, we’ll be hit again.”
