How Xi Jinping turned his corona drama into a win - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia at the BBC

China was in chaos when the coronavirus emerged in public at the beginning of 2020, but instead of a drama, president Xi Jinping was able to turn the events into a global win for the country, says London-based journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Lotus, a novel on prostitution in China, to Barbara Demick of the New York Review of Books.

NY Review of Books:

I’ve heard this from other overseas Chinese. Lijia Zhang, a writer who lives in London, told me, “In the beginning, it was a mess. People were thinking this could be Xi Jinping’s downfall. Now they are saying China is in a much better position to deal with a crisis, with its authoritarian system. The West is too chaotic.’’
The respective failures of the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom clearly bolstered China’s confidence. But the turnaround couldn’t have happened without an almost textbook propaganda operation, involving coercion, misinformation, and manipulation.

More in the NY Review of Books.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your (virtual) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Why China blamed the US army for causing the coronavirus - Victor Shih

Victor Shih

Although not taken serious, when a spokesperson of China’s Foreign Affairs ministry blamed the US army for bringing the coronavirus into China, many paid attention. Political analyst Victor Shih explains why China relied on this very unlikely scenario at the New York Times. 

The New York Times:

The circulation of disinformation is not a new tactic for the Communist Party state. The United States, in particular, is often a foil of Chinese propaganda efforts. Last year, Beijing explicitly accused the U.S. government of supporting public protests in Hong Kong in an effort to weaken the party's rule.

The old tactic has been amplified by more combative public diplomacy and a new embrace of a social media platform that is blocked in China to spread a message abroad. 

Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California at San Diego who studies Chinese politics, said that while the campaign was very likely an attempt to distract and deflect blame, a more worrisome possibility was that some officials fabricated the idea and persuaded top leaders to believe it. 

"If the leadership really believes in the culpability of the U.S. government," he warned, it may behave in a way that "dramatically" worsens the bilateral relationship.

More at the New York Times.

Victor Shih is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

State propaganda in overdrive after Trump election - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

China´s state media have gone in overdrive pointing out, what they call, the decline of US democracy, Zhang Lijia, author of Socialism Is Great!: A Worker's Memoir of the New China tells at CNN. "They have gone into an overdrive," she tells, although the official reactions have remained polite, naming this a win-win situation. Hillary Clinton, much more than Donald Trump, was seen as a potential anti-China force in the US.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? 

Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form. Are you looking for more political experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

Zhang Lijia will publish in January 2017 Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, with the story of her grandmother, a former concubine, as a basis.

Zhang Lijia will be in the Netherlands in January on a book tour.

 

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