The Chinese propaganda machinery is now in full swing as the Chinese Communist Party is buying good press across the world to wash its hands off the Wuhan virus. Over the past few days, India has been particularly the target of the Chinese propaganda as Beijing scales up the ideological war. An article written by a Chinese businessman which paints a dystopian picture of India has been the subject of much debate in China. However, the Chinese people have smelled the fish and have even reported the article to be taken down.
Ananth Krishnan who is a journalist at The Hindu reports that an article written by a Chinese businessman supposedly residing in India has gone viral on WeChat as it has clocked over 100,000 views. The dystopian article claims that many Chinese businessmen wanted to abandon their projects and return to China because, “Indians screw everything up. Thereutting’s nothing that Indians can’t mess up.”
https://twitter.com/ananthkrishnan/status/1244108360821043201?s=20
The article then tires to paint an image that is a spitting image of what continues to happen in the hospital wards of Wuhan. When the businessman visits a hospital, he finds that its full of people with fever and coughing. A doctor then tells the businessman that there are thousands of cases already but no one is worried enough to test because India’s full of so many other diseases.
The article further claimed that the Indian government issued a new law in March requiring all information on the epidemic published my media to receive official authorisation. It is almost as if the businessman was writing about China but someone just replaced “China” in the article with “India”.
The article further claims that riots between Hindus and Muslims are a regular occurrence and because of the riots, every Chinese residing in India is perpetually in a state of fear.
As if almost ripping off a Hollywood script, the article claims that all the upscale and rich areas in India are guarded by private security that wield guns as guns are legal in India and it’s only second to the US in gun-ownership.
The stereotyping article has gone viral in China and with no freedom of press, it is likely that the Chinese would believe this to be the gospel truth about India. However, the article has been subject of severe backlash in China as people are rebutting the article point by point. The severity of the backlash can be gauged from the fact that some have even reported the article to WeChat for spreading disinformation and have requested the article to be taken down.
https://twitter.com/ananthkrishnan/status/1244540359956287490?s=20
https://twitter.com/ananthkrishnan/status/1244544946347978752?s=20
The responses from the Chinese on Ananth Krishnan’s thread gives an indication of the severity of the backlash.
https://twitter.com/KuangDW/status/1244118024686153729?s=20
I don't know the facts on the ground of India but I just don't trust this kind of Chinese-language writing. One can tell from the choice of words, sentences, tones and style – it's not serious stuff. He might not be intentionally writing misleading info, but sadly it's gone viral
— Zichen Wang (@ZichenWanghere) March 29, 2020
this is not an isolated case. For days and weeks there have been all kinds of sensational writing in non-serious words, sentences, tones and style about pretty much everything everywhere. Don't think they're organized, but theseUGCs are determined to go sensational to win clicks
— Zichen Wang (@ZichenWanghere) March 29, 2020
It is Chinese propaganda. The goal is to draw contrast between China and any indefinite foreign country. The goal was to show Chinese Communist Part being great pic.twitter.com/g2I5u3Lwxj
— Ray Chu Love Hong Kong ⬜🟦 (@RZLHongKong) March 30, 2020
Amazing! I am Chinese and have read that article. So glad to see the other side of the story, which sounds more true!
— Sam Hanhui Sun (@Sam_HH_Sun) March 29, 2020
China’s creation and mismanagement of the Pandemic, coupled with India’s success in containing the novel Wuhan virus, at least till as of now has two major consequences as far global perceptions are concerned-
- Vindication of India’s model of democracy, openness and transparency.
- Undermining of the “Beijing Consensus”- China’s own mythical model to convince its domestic population of the virtues of the Communist model and the obsoleteness of democracy.
It is a known fact that China not only messed up its own fight against the Coronavirus, but also kept misleading the entire world about the real magnitude of the novel, mysterious virus that owes its origins to the rampant, unhealthy practices in Central China.
In this backdrop has arisen – a democratic, transparent India which has managed the Pandemic in a much better way than China. With the unprecedentedly humongous efforts of the Modi government, the infection has been contained to a large extent. And this has renewed Chinese fears of India’s democratic model prevailing over, and even threatening the Chinese Communist model.
China cannot afford India to succeed in its war against the Wuhan virus. While it has no control or leverage over the Indian government, the Chinese Communist Party is working in an overdrive to weave a forceful narrative of how India has “failed” to contain the Wuhan virus.