WSJ 报道 中国正在利用口罩外交企图成为世界的领导者 New York City’s Times Square stands empty, a testament to the threat the coronavirus poses to the biggest U.S. city. Meanwhile, 7,500 miles to the east, young people celebrate the end of quarantine over hotpot in a crowded restaurant in the Chinese city of Chengdu. And in Fujian province, a team of Chinese virus experts heads to the airport for a chartered flight to help an overwhelmed Italy. The three images, posted close to each other on the Twitter feed of China’s official Xinhua News Agency one day last week, encapsulate a sweeping effort by the Communist Party to craft the story of the pandemic and cast China in the role of global savior. Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking by video link to other leaders of the Group of 20 nations last week, said his country had made tremendous sacrifices to curtail the virus’s spread at home and would now help others. China’s French embassy put it in starker terms in a tweet storm. “When the epidemic started to explode everywhere, it was China who the entire world asked for help, and not the United States, the ‘beacon of democracy,’” the embassy said. “It is China who lent a helping hand to more than 80 nations. Not the United States.” A worker in a warehouse near Milan in Italy, a country hard-hit by the coronavirus, holds a box of medical supplies donated by China.PHOTO: MOURA BALTI TOUATI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK China, the country where the virus first appeared and claimed its first several thousand lives, is now using the global spread of the disease to bolster an increasing vocal, assertive bid for global leadership that is exacerbating a yearslong conflict with the U.S. Combined with deliveries of essential goods, this public-relations push has enabled China to stake a claim to a void on the global stage left by an inward-looking America—while also helping Chinese leaders distract attention at home from criticism they mishandled the early stages of the outbreak. How China Is Using Soft Power to Rewrite the Coronavirus Narrative
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How China Is Using Soft Power to Rewrite the Coronavirus Narrative
China is sending doctors and medical supplies to Italy and other countries that have been hit hard by the coronavirus. WSJ’s Eric Sylvers in Milan explains how China is using soft power to change perceptions about its handling of the pandemic. Photo: Moura Balti Touati/Shutterstock Over a two-week period in March, Chinese government agencies, companies and charities donated more than 26 million face masks, 2.3 million testing kits and other supplies to 89 countries, according to a review of state media reports and government and company statements. On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry said the number of countries receiving its coronavirus-related help has reached 120. In hard-hit countries such as Italy, the aid has sparked ire that China was quicker to respond than closer allies such as Germany or the U.S. For days, customs officers in Germany held up shipments of medical gear bound for its southern neighbors, to make sure the supplies weren’t going to profiteers. Nearby Czech Republic seized a shipment of masks intended for Italy. Workers at a Budapest, Hungary, airport unload a shipment of medical aid from Shanghai, China.PHOTO: ZSOLT SZIGETVARY/SHUTTERSTOCK Meanwhile, China has sent Italy millions of masks in packages printed with the lyrics of an Italian opera aria. Though France has since sent Rome a million masks, and although both French and German hospitals have taken patients transferred from Italy, the European help wasn’t as swift or well communicated. French officials said they struggled to compete with the story of China stepping in for a disjointed Europe. In early February, when China was still the epicenter of the outbreak, the European Union and the U.S. donated a combined 30 tons of medical equipment to China with little fanfare. Pushing beyond material aid, China’s government has sent experts and teleconferenced guidance to medical staff in countries across Europe and Asia, in an international role similar to the one the U.S. played during the 2014 Ebola epidemic, when the U.S. Agency for International Development provided West African countries with critical aid and advice. “It’s been striking how quickly they’ve been able to pivot,” said Andrew Small, an expert on EU-China relations at the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank, referring to Beijing’s attempts to change the narrative of the pandemic. “But I think basically almost as soon as the crisis started, they had a propaganda battle to win on this.” China’s Foreign Ministry said China was repaying in kind the help and assistance received from countries earlier, as well as “bearing the responsibility of a great power.” “China has no desire to seek credit, but also definitely doesn’t accept baseless accusations,” the ministry said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. A key moment came on March 10, when President Xi visited Wuhan, the city where the virus emerged. Until then, the Communist Party seemed to be reeling. Critics, including Chinese social-media users, accused officials of an initial coverup that allowed the virus to take hold. There were doubts whether iron-fisted controls would stem the spread. By going to Wuhan, Mr. Xi signaled the party’s confidence in its approach. On the same day, President Trump was downplaying the crisis in a meeting with senators, saying, “We’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” As cases multiplied in the U.S., Mr. Trump took to referring to the pathogen as the “Chinese virus,” implicitly blaming China for the pandemic. In response, China’s Foreign Ministry raised doubts about the virus’s origin, saying scientists had yet to determine beyond doubt it came from Wuhan. Chinese medical experts prepared to leave Fujian Province on March 25 to fly to Italy and help it battle the coronavirus. Prior to this mission, China sent 22 people and 20 tons of medical supplies.PHOTO: WEI PEIQUAN/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian began promoting a theory that U.S. Army members who visited Wuhan in October introduced the virus, a claim Chinese state television examined as a serious possibility. The U.S. State Department summoned China’s ambassador over the claims, and Western governments have since excoriated Mr. Zhao for spreading misinformation in the middle of a global crisis. Simultaneously, Chinese diplomats, state-media organizations and charities started to announce provisions of aid to virus-stricken countries. China had already sent supplies to hard-hit lands in the Middle East, chiefly Iran. Now donations and sales spread around the globe, often accompanied by glowing reports in state media.
Chinese companies jumped into the effort. Charities connected to Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., have donated more than 14 million masks, including a million Mr. Ma shipped, along with 500,000 testing kits, from Shanghai to Memphis, Tenn. Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co. has donated millions of masks to several EU member states including Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and Ireland. The Jack Ma Foundation declined to comment, referring reporters to its website and social-media accounts. Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said most recipients expressed sincere gratitude, but “a small minority may have misunderstood our motives, which are simply to help people when and where we can.” Some of China’s largest deliveries in Europe have gone to populist, nationalist or euroskeptic leaders who have pushed to play a part in China’s big international Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. On March 24, a plane from Shenzhen landed in Hungary carrying three million medical masks. Each package bore the words “Hajrá Magyarország!” or “Bring It On, Hungary!” which is a local football cheer and also is a campaign slogan for Prime Minister Viktor Orban. A delighted Mr. Orban toured the narrow pathways of the jam-packed jet tapping elbows with the Chinese crew and remarking, “It’s impressive!” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, and a colleague with virus-fighting supplies sent by China. Included were three million face masks, 100,000 tests and 86 ventilators. China labeled the boxes “Bring It On, Hungary!”PHOTO: TAMAS KOVACS/MTI/ASSOCIATED PRESS “The situation I see can be described as this: In the West, there is a shortage of basically everything,” Mr. Orban said, in comments relayed over Chinese state television. “The help we are able to get is from the East.” Czech Republic, whose President Miloš Zeman has pushed to make his country “China’s gateway to Europe,” secured 1.1 million respirators, flown in from Shanghai.
President Trump said Monday that the U.S. plans to send about $100 million in medical equipment to Italy. At the height of Italy’s outbreak, though, supplies flowed in the opposite direction. In mid-March, the U.S. Air Force flew 500,000 coronavirus test swabs manufactured in Italy to Tennessee, sparking outrage and unkind comparisons to China. “The United States is not offering leadership. Europe doesn’t exist…. For the first time in decades, West is lost,” said Francesco Sisci, an Italian Sinologist and columnist for the Catholic newspaper Settimana News. “In this vacuum, China’s offering an example. They are there, and they are helpful.” At a press briefing last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he told allies, including Italy, that the U.S. was committed to helping them deal with the pandemic. “The Chinese Communist Party poses a substantial threat to our health and way of life, as the Wuhan virus outbreak clearly has demonstrated,” Mr. Pompeo said. In Italy, some of the strongest praise for China’s help has come from Luigi Di Maio, the populist foreign minister, who has pushed for Italy to participate in the Belt and Road initiative. A billboard in Belgrade, Serbia, shows Chinese President Xi Jinping next to the words "Thank you brother Xi.” China has sent Serbia supplies to fight the spread of the coronavirus.PHOTO: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES The EU is starting to push back in the “global battle of narratives,” as the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, described it in a blog post. “We must be aware there is a geopolitical component including a struggle for influence through spinning and the ‘politics of generosity,’” Mr. Borrell wrote. “Armed with facts, we need to defend Europe against its detractors.” SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS Should China, because of the aid it has sent, be seen as a savior of nations struggling with the coronavirus? Join the conversation below?
Tension over China’s role spilled over at a Foreign Ministry press briefing in Beijing on Monday, when spokeswoman Hua Chunying hit back at criticisms—voiced by the Netherlands and Spain—over the quality of Chinese-produced masks and testing-kits. “When the epidemic first started in China, some of the materials we received from abroad were also substandard,” Ms. Hua said. “We chose to believe in and respect the good intentions of those countries and handled the issue with appropriate discretion.” Ms. Hua bristled at suggestions that China’s donations were aimed at expanding its political influence. “Would they rather China watch on with folded arms, and be indifferent at this time?” she asked. China’s Commerce Ministry said Tuesday it was strengthening quality checks on exports of coronavirus-related supplies to ensure they meet destination countries’ standards. Talk of China’s success in fighting the coronavirus and offering assistance gives Beijing an opportunity to burnish its international credibility, as it did during the 2008 financial crisis when China unleashed an immense stimulus package that helped buoy the global economy. Members of a Chinese anti-epidemic team on its way to Serbia prepared to depart from Guangzhou on March 21, 2020.PHOTO: LIU DAWEI/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS Chinese officials have emphasized Mr. Xi’s personal oversight of the fight against the epidemic. “Faced with this great epidemic, the philosophy of a community of shared future for mankind put forward by President Xi Jinping has seen its value for these times magnified,” Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui said in a press conference. Following weeks without communication, Mr. Trump called Mr. Xi last Thursday to discuss cooperation in fighting the pandemic. In the days leading up to the call, Mr. Trump said he would stop using the term “Chinese virus.” On the call, Mr. Xi said the two countries should unite to combat the pandemic, and China was willing to support the U.S., Chinese state media reported. “China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus,” Mr. Trump wrote afterward on Twitter. “We are working closely together. Much respect!” China has said its infection rates have dropped steadily, with health authorities reporting almost no new locally transmitted infections in the past week, though they remain on high alert against cases brought in from overseas. This week, Chinese authorities began disclosing numbers of asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, following allegations it was artificially keeping infection numbers low. China said it had detected 1,541 asymptomatic cases as of Monday, with 205 coming from overseas.China Asserts Claim to Global Leadership, Mask by MaskBeijing is providing equipment to hard-hit nations such as Italy, drawing a contrast with the U.S. and making sure everyone knows about itChina Asserts Claim to Global Leadership, Mask by MaskBeijing is providing equipment to hard-hit nations such as Italy, drawing a contrast with the U.S. and making sure everyone knows about itChina Asserts Claim to Global Leadership, Mask by MaskBeijing is providing equipment to hard-hit nations such as Italy, drawing a contrast with the U.S. and making sure everyone knows about it
New York City’s Times Square stands empty, a testament to the threat the coronavirus poses to the biggest U.S. city. Meanwhile, 7,500 miles to the east, young people celebrate the end of quarantine over hotpot in a crowded restaurant in the Chinese city of Chengdu. And in Fujian province, a team of Chinese virus experts heads to the airport for a chartered flight to help an overwhelmed Italy. The three images, posted close to each other on the Twitter feed of China’s official Xinhua News Agency one day last week, encapsulate a sweeping effort by the Communist Party to craft the story of the pandemic and cast China in the role of global savior.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking by video link to other leaders of the Group of 20 nations last week, said his country had made tremendous sacrifices to curtail the virus’s spread at home and would now help others. China’s French embassy put it in starker terms in a tweet storm. “When the epidemic started to explode everywhere, it was China who the entire world asked for help, and not the United States, the ‘beacon of democracy,’” the embassy said. “It is China who lent a helping hand to more than 80 nations. Not the United States.”
A worker in a warehouse near Milan in Italy, a country hard-hit by the coronavirus, holds a box of medical supplies donated by China.PHOTO: MOURA BALTI TOUATI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
China, the country where the virus first appeared and claimed its first several thousand lives, is now using the global spread of the disease to bolster an increasing vocal, assertive bid for global leadership that is exacerbating a yearslong conflict with the U.S. Combined with deliveries of essential goods, this public-relations push has enabled China to stake a claim to a void on the global stage left by an inward-looking America—while also helping Chinese leaders distract attention at home from criticism they mishandled the early stages of the outbreak. How China Is Using Soft Power to Rewrite the Coronavirus Narrative
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0:00 / 3:23
China is sending doctors and medical supplies to Italy and other countries that have been hit hard by the coronavirus. WSJ’s Eric Sylvers in Milan explains how China is using soft power to change perceptions about its handling of the pandemic. Photo: Moura Balti Touati/Shutterstock
Over a two-week period in March, Chinese government agencies, companies and charities donated more than 26 million face masks, 2.3 million testing kits and other supplies to 89 countries, according to a review of state media reports and government and company statements. On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry said the number of countries receiving its coronavirus-related help has reached 120. In hard-hit countries such as Italy, the aid has sparked ire that China was quicker to respond than closer allies such as Germany or the U.S. For days, customs officers in Germany held up shipments of medical gear bound for its southern neighbors, to make sure the supplies weren’t going to profiteers. Nearby Czech Republic seized a shipment of masks intended for Italy.
Workers at a Budapest, Hungary, airport unload a shipment of medical aid from Shanghai, China.PHOTO: ZSOLT SZIGETVARY/SHUTTERSTOCK
Meanwhile, China has sent Italy millions of masks in packages printed with the lyrics of an Italian opera aria. Though France has since sent Rome a million masks, and although both French and German hospitals have taken patients transferred from Italy, the European help wasn’t as swift or well communicated. French officials said they struggled to compete with the story of China stepping in for a disjointed Europe. In early February, when China was still the epicenter of the outbreak, the European Union and the U.S. donated a combined 30 tons of medical equipment to China with little fanfare. Pushing beyond material aid, China’s government has sent experts and teleconferenced guidance to medical staff in countries across Europe and Asia, in an international role similar to the one the U.S. played during the 2014 Ebola epidemic, when the U.S. Agency for International Development provided West African countries with critical aid and advice. “It’s been striking how quickly they’ve been able to pivot,” said Andrew Small, an expert on EU-China relations at the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank, referring to Beijing’s attempts to change the narrative of the pandemic. “But I think basically almost as soon as the crisis started, they had a propaganda battle to win on this.” China’s Foreign Ministry said China was repaying in kind the help and assistance received from countries earlier, as well as “bearing the responsibility of a great power.” “China has no desire to seek credit, but also definitely doesn’t accept baseless accusations,” the ministry said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. A key moment came on March 10, when President Xi visited Wuhan, the city where the virus emerged. Until then, the Communist Party seemed to be reeling. Critics, including Chinese social-media users, accused officials of an initial coverup that allowed the virus to take hold. There were doubts whether iron-fisted controls would stem the spread. By going to Wuhan, Mr. Xi signaled the party’s confidence in its approach. On the same day, President Trump was downplaying the crisis in a meeting with senators, saying, “We’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” As cases multiplied in the U.S., Mr. Trump took to referring to the pathogen as the “Chinese virus,” implicitly blaming China for the pandemic. In response, China’s Foreign Ministry raised doubts about the virus’s origin, saying scientists had yet to determine beyond doubt it came from Wuhan.
Chinese medical experts prepared to leave Fujian Province on March 25 to fly to Italy and help it battle the coronavirus. Prior to this mission, China sent 22 people and 20 tons of medical supplies.PHOTO: WEI PEIQUAN/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian began promoting a theory that U.S. Army members who visited Wuhan in October introduced the virus, a claim Chinese state television examined as a serious possibility. The U.S. State Department summoned China’s ambassador over the claims, and Western governments have since excoriated Mr. Zhao for spreading misinformation in the middle of a global crisis. Simultaneously, Chinese diplomats, state-media organizations and charities started to announce provisions of aid to virus-stricken countries. China had already sent supplies to hard-hit lands in the Middle East, chiefly Iran. Now donations and sales spread around the globe, often accompanied by glowing reports in state media.
Chinese companies jumped into the effort. Charities connected to Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., have donated more than 14 million masks, including a million Mr. Ma shipped, along with 500,000 testing kits, from Shanghai to Memphis, Tenn. Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co. has donated millions of masks to several EU member states including Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and Ireland. The Jack Ma Foundation declined to comment, referring reporters to its website and social-media accounts. Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said most recipients expressed sincere gratitude, but “a small minority may have misunderstood our motives, which are simply to help people when and where we can.” Some of China’s largest deliveries in Europe have gone to populist, nationalist or euroskeptic leaders who have pushed to play a part in China’s big international Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. On March 24, a plane from Shenzhen landed in Hungary carrying three million medical masks. Each package bore the words “Hajrá Magyarország!” or “Bring It On, Hungary!” which is a local football cheer and also is a campaign slogan for Prime Minister Viktor Orban. A delighted Mr. Orban toured the narrow pathways of the jam-packed jet tapping elbows with the Chinese crew and remarking, “It’s impressive!”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, and a colleague with virus-fighting supplies sent by China. Included were three million face masks, 100,000 tests and 86 ventilators. China labeled the boxes “Bring It On, Hungary!”PHOTO: TAMAS KOVACS/MTI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“The situation I see can be described as this: In the West, there is a shortage of basically everything,” Mr. Orban said, in comments relayed over Chinese state television. “The help we are able to get is from the East.” Czech Republic, whose President Miloš Zeman has pushed to make his country “China’s gateway to Europe,” secured 1.1 million respirators, flown in from Shanghai.
President Trump said Monday that the U.S. plans to send about $100 million in medical equipment to Italy. At the height of Italy’s outbreak, though, supplies flowed in the opposite direction. In mid-March, the U.S. Air Force flew 500,000 coronavirus test swabs manufactured in Italy to Tennessee, sparking outrage and unkind comparisons to China. “The United States is not offering leadership. Europe doesn’t exist…. For the first time in decades, West is lost,” said Francesco Sisci, an Italian Sinologist and columnist for the Catholic newspaper Settimana News. “In this vacuum, China’s offering an example. They are there, and they are helpful.” At a press briefing last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he told allies, including Italy, that the U.S. was committed to helping them deal with the pandemic. “The Chinese Communist Party poses a substantial threat to our health and way of life, as the Wuhan virus outbreak clearly has demonstrated,” Mr. Pompeo said. In Italy, some of the strongest praise for China’s help has come from Luigi Di Maio, the populist foreign minister, who has pushed for Italy to participate in the Belt and Road initiative.
A billboard in Belgrade, Serbia, shows Chinese President Xi Jinping next to the words "Thank you brother Xi.” China has sent Serbia supplies to fight the spread of the coronavirus.PHOTO: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
The EU is starting to push back in the “global battle of narratives,” as the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, described it in a blog post. “We must be aware there is a geopolitical component including a struggle for influence through spinning and the ‘politics of generosity,’” Mr. Borrell wrote. “Armed with facts, we need to defend Europe against its detractors.”
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS Should China, because of the aid it has sent, be seen as a savior of nations struggling with the coronavirus? Join the conversation below?
Tension over China’s role spilled over at a Foreign Ministry press briefing in Beijing on Monday, when spokeswoman Hua Chunying hit back at criticisms—voiced by the Netherlands and Spain—over the quality of Chinese-produced masks and testing-kits. “When the epidemic first started in China, some of the materials we received from abroad were also substandard,” Ms. Hua said. “We chose to believe in and respect the good intentions of those countries and handled the issue with appropriate discretion.” Ms. Hua bristled at suggestions that China’s donations were aimed at expanding its political influence. “Would they rather China watch on with folded arms, and be indifferent at this time?” she asked. China’s Commerce Ministry said Tuesday it was strengthening quality checks on exports of coronavirus-related supplies to ensure they meet destination countries’ standards. Talk of China’s success in fighting the coronavirus and offering assistance gives Beijing an opportunity to burnish its international credibility, as it did during the 2008 financial crisis when China unleashed an immense stimulus package that helped buoy the global economy.
Members of a Chinese anti-epidemic team on its way to Serbia prepared to depart from Guangzhou on March 21, 2020.PHOTO: LIU DAWEI/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS
Chinese officials have emphasized Mr. Xi’s personal oversight of the fight against the epidemic. “Faced with this great epidemic, the philosophy of a community of shared future for mankind put forward by President Xi Jinping has seen its value for these times magnified,” Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui said in a press conference. Following weeks without communication, Mr. Trump called Mr. Xi last Thursday to discuss cooperation in fighting the pandemic. In the days leading up to the call, Mr. Trump said he would stop using the term “Chinese virus.” On the call, Mr. Xi said the two countries should unite to combat the pandemic, and China was willing to support the U.S., Chinese state media reported. “China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus,” Mr. Trump wrote afterward on Twitter. “We are working closely together. Much respect!” China has said its infection rates have dropped steadily, with health authorities reporting almost no new locally transmitted infections in the past week, though they remain on high alert against cases brought in from overseas.
This week, Chinese authorities began disclosing numbers of asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, following allegations it was artificially keeping infection numbers low. China said it had detected 1,541 asymptomatic cases as of Monday, with 205 coming from overseas.China Asserts Claim to Global Leadership, Mask by MaskBeijing is providing equipment to hard-hit nations such as Italy, drawing a contrast with the U.S. and making sure everyone knows about itChina Asserts Claim to Global Leadership, Mask by MaskBeijing is providing equipment to hard-hit nations such as Italy, drawing a contrast with the U.S. and making sure everyone knows about itChina Asserts Claim to Global Leadership, Mask by MaskBeijing is providing equipment to hard-hit nations such as Italy, drawing a contrast with the U.S. and making sure everyone knows about it