China’s propaganda blitz offers hope despite more falling ill
DESPITE the cough and fever setting in, Wan Quian, 45, still cleaned the bathroom once every three hours and simmered chicken soup for his family.
His stoical approach to the coronavirus that infected his entire family has now been used by Chinese state TV in its intensifying propaganda campaign.
“You just have to live your life day by day. When it passes, it passes, and everything gets better,” he told The Sunday Telegraph after his television interview. “I’m still not fully recovered now, but am much better than before.”
Mr Wan’s resolve in the face of the virus is among the stories of dedication featured on Chinese state media to engineer a return to normality.
The Chinese government is trying to show that everything is under control to drown out the noise about medical-supply shortages and infected doctors.
Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, has ordered state media to “tell the moving stories of how those on the front lines are preventing and fighting the virus” and to “showcase the spirit of solidarity among Chinese people and strong power against the virus”.
The videos include a front-line doctor, unable to leave work, getting married via video chat; a nurse kissing her boyfriend, both masked, from behind glass; Mr Xi himself visiting a hospital, donning an affordable blue face mask, and proclaiming the “people of Hubei and Wuhan are heroic!”
Just a week after an outpouring of grief and anger over the death of Li Wenliang, 34, a doctor punished for warning about the virus, Mr Wan’s interview, posted online by China’s state broadcaster, became a trending topic on Chinese social media.
“I was moved by your strict self-discipline and rational, peaceful mentality,” wrote one user.
“You are already brilliant. You have taken good care of the elderly and your child,” said another. “I admire you so much.”
Reframing the narrative is crucial for the Chinese government, tasked with curbing the outbreak and getting the country of 1.4billion, many of whom tired of staying at home, to keep following quarantine directives.
Giant red propaganda banners disseminate public service announcements. “It’s better to wear masks than respirators; it’s better to lay at home than in ICU,” reads one. “Not wearing a mask is like swimming a cesspool,” proclaims another.