China enjoys creating its own version of events – let’s not give it material
The deepening Sino-american Cold War has reached a surreal new stage. The Chinese state-owned TV channel CGTN this week worked up a new piece of propaganda called “Pompeo’s Credibility Test”. It’s a lurid mock-up of a computer game, in which a fat cartoon Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, loses health points every time he “lies” about coronavirus. In the background, a Chinese Ppe-clad figure delivers kapows to a hovering virus particle.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is angry with what he calls “some wacko in China” who, he says, “released a statement blaming everyone except China”. It isn’t clear who or what he means. As Bill Bishop, the author of China report Sinocism, puts it: “None of this is normal, whatever normal is these days.”
It ought to go without saying that unless there is verification, no one should believe a word that issues from the mouths of the Chinese authorities. The American authorities, on the other hand, are meant to be the reliable ones – not because Americans are inherently better, but because American politicians can be caught out and criticised when they lie.
It would be a good idea, therefore, for Mr Pompeo to consider the effect of his words around the world, where the US is striving to win an information war, rather than providing easy fodder for the Chinese Communist Party by repeatedly contradicting himself on television.
In one recent appearance, he did so, within the space of a minute, seemingly without noticing, first stating that he believes the virus to be genetically engineered and then stating that it wasn’t (helpful primer: it isn’t, but that still doesn’t mean it couldn’t have leaked from a lab).
China’s propagandists are creative enough on their own. They don’t need to be handed material.
It would be good for Mr Pompeo to think of the effect of his words around the world