By: Shreyanshi Sikaria
The author is a third-year bachelor’s student at Jindal School of International Affairs. She can be reached at 22jsia-ssikaria@jgu.edu.in.
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic that started in late 2019 can be considered one of the most significant events of the 21st century having an impact on global health care systems, economies, and geopolitics. At the core of this issue is China where the virus started but whose approach to handling the virus created the initial benchmark for how the world would combat the pandemic. With the development of the virus cases across the globe which resulted in deaths, criticisms on the origin of the virus and China’s handling of it grew louder. This created a rich blend of facts and fictions in attempts to manage the perception of history as revisionism.
In this regard, historical manipulation refers to tampering with documents that are concerning the emergence and initial stage of the virus. When criticism of Chinese early measures began to rise, the government used different revisionist tactics including changing dates and shifting the blame. Such efforts took place against the background of international political strife and became a commentary on truth in today’s world or, more accurately, on the task of preserving such a thing as a single truth in the face of complex information warfare and national stories.[1]
This paper will analyse how China has practiced historical revisionism as a tactic of political manipulation during the pandemic through portraying factual data by credible media outlets such as changing timelines and controlling scientific narrative. With the help of studying these strategies and their rationale, their significance for the formation of further trends in the development of global health policy and international cooperation in the context of future pandemics and in relation to the features of information warfare can be determined.
Brief Historical Context
The cases of a new type of coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019. This virus established its case in Wuhan by January 2020, and the disease had also spread to other regions within China. The Chinese government closed down Wuhan and other cities in the Hubei province on January 23, 2020.[2] The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 and a pandemic on 11 March 2020.
First, there were rumours that the local authorities in Wuhan hushed the reports about the virus. Dr. Li Wenliang, who tried to warn colleagues about the new virus, was reprimanded by local police for “spreading rumours.” He later died from COVID-19, sparking widespread public anger in China.[3]
As the virus spread globally, international criticism of China's early handling of the outbreak intensified. It is in this context that the Chinese government began to employ various tactics of historical revisionism to reshape the narrative around the pandemic's origins and China's response.[4]
Historical Revisionism
Historical revisionism, in this context, refers to efforts to reinterpret or alter the historical record of events related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese government has employed several types of revisionist tactics-
The Chinese authorities have committed multiple acts of revisionism concerning the COVID-19 pandemic mainly through changing its timeline. One of these methods was used to change the date of the first cases. Initially, the first recorded contraction of COVID-19 was said to have happened on December 8, 2019. However, the subsequent studies by the journalists and researchers indicated that the cases may have emerged as early as November 2019. Nevertheless, the Chinese authority has always stuck to the later date only. Furthermore, attempts have been made to minimize the early understanding of human-to-human transmission when the outbreak began. While such transmission had been identified in late December 2019 and early January 2020, the formal confirmation was given later.[5]
When it comes to the ways in which China has dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak, the authorities have stressed the effectiveness and speed. This includes noticeable measures like the efficient establishment of makeshift intensive care unit field hospitals, the aggressive use of contact tracing and lock down measures. Although these are core in fighting the virus, this narrative erases the initial weak and slow response to the pandemic. Moreover, great efforts have been made to downplay or eliminate from the official narratives the censorship conducted by the local Wuhan authorities at the initial stage of the epidemic, for example, how the story of Dr Li Wenliang was presented in the mainstream media.
Furthermore, debate continues over the scapegoating China has been trying to do in regard to the origins of the virus. As the global pressure for an answer grew, Chinese officials and state outlets started peddling theories that the virus could have started elsewhere. They suggested that the virus could have been brought into Wuhan through frozen food or might have started in other places like in America or Italy. There were also attempts to deny Wuhan as the place of origin of the virus and downplay the relationships between the first cases and their association with the Huanan Seafood Market.
This strategic redirection is part of a more general campaign by Chinese officials to shape international views of China’s place and responsibility for the pandemic. In the case of focusing on their later achievements and concealing their early failures, offering other theories of their origin, China seeks to reduce criticism in the international arena. This strategy is not only about changing internal narratives but also about trying to shape the global narrative of the early stage of COVID-19. It captures a complex dance of the officially declared actions aimed at containing the situation inside the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and diplomatic activities aimed at maintaining the country’s image on the international level during an unprecedented pandemic.
However, the Chinese government was keen on managing the scientific discourse about the virus. There are concerns that Chinese scientists have been banned from studying the origins of the virus and a government pass is needed for anyone to publish on this. Many of the criticise have been made based on limited access and transparency provided to visiting teams including a WHO team to Wuhan China.
Rationale Behind The Historical Revisionism
Understanding the motivations behind these revisionist tactics is crucial to comprehending their broader implications for international politics and public health policy.
The primary reason for China’s historical revisionism regarding the pandemic is to maintain its positive image in front of the world. China’s goal in shifting the narrative about the pandemic is to score diplomatic points and portray it as a responsible international player and an effective manager of epidemiological risks. This effort is important for China’s strategic vision as the way it manages the pandemic situation will impact the world’s perception and its place in it. The next important reason is the shifting of the blame and criticism. To fight these accusations China asks questions about the origin of the virus and emphasizes the speed and efficiency of the response. This deflection is directed both, towards the international observers and the domestic population, for whom the story of good governance and crisis preparedness reinforces support for the government.[6]
However, besides the current concerns, China wants to set the record straight for future historians as well. By actively pushing its favourable narrative as to what happened, China aims not merely at influencing today’s narrative, but history’s as well regarding the pandemic. This particular strategic approach is in consonance with China on information management and acknowledges the impact of historical paradigms on the world perception over time.
China also uses this revisionist narrative for geopolitical advantage, and by asserting itself as the leader in global health governance. China wants to gain more soft power and a higher international standing, which fits into other Chinese foreign policy goals, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, by stressing its performance in controlling the virus and helping other nations.[7] Finally, the Chinese revisionism is best understood as a reaction to what China believes are a biased Western view on the outbreak of the virus. However, presenting other hypotheses, and listing its accomplishments, China responds to what it deems bias portrayal by Western media and political actors that came first as part of a broader trend of trying to reinterpret the global discourse in an effort to undermine the Western hegemony within it.[8]
Implications of Historical Revisionism
The use of historical revisionism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has several significant implications-
The new approach to rewriting the history of the early pandemic may have implications for the future of international health affairs. It is therefore important to have a correct perception of how pandemics start and go viral with a view of containing the next one. Such an understanding may be lost in revisionist narratives that could in turn impede global preparedness. Secondly, Chinese conductive behaviour in the process of revisionism also undermines confidence in international relations.[9] Such distrust may harm international collaboration on various matters extending from health emergencies to climate change and so on. The suppression and censorship of scientific stories present a problem for the international scientific community because science must be unrestricted and accessible to foster more knowledge about diseases and to build better responses. The pandemic has also shown how information warfare plays in the contemporary politics. These attempts, along with similar ones made by other countries, show that the problem of keeping the common social reality in mind in an era of disinformation has not been solved.[10]
Conclusion
China’s manipulation of historical facts in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak is the perfect example of how information manipulation and historical revisionism is a crucial aspect of politics. In this context, China has been involved in different strategies to influence the common perception of how the pandemic started and how the Chinese government reacted – changing the chronology, rewriting the story, changing the source of the story, and regulating the scientific discourse.
These efforts at historical revisionism serve multiple purposes: Since last year, ten eminently political rationales have been identified regarding mask exports: protecting national image, avoiding blame, writing future histories, gaining geopolitical advantage of crisis, and to answer Western bias. But they also have potential consequences for global health governance, interstate trust, science, and the general international relations regime.
Even now that the world faces the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the struggle over its story and history is far from over. The interference of China as a revisionist power provides a disturbing example of how difficult it is to coordinate on the truth in high politics when one’s adversaries have the capability to manipulate information.
In this context, the importance of quality, reliable journalism, scientific discourse and factual analysis only rises to a new level. It has become the responsibility of the citizens and the members of the global community to develop such skills to be able to manoeuvre between the available information and critically analyse the stories. The COVID-19 pandemic and China’s subsequent efforts to frame the narrative provide a rather elucidating illustration of the problems people face even today in their attempts at identifying truth.
References
[1] World Bank Group, ‘Chapter 1. The Economic Impacts of the COVID-19 Crisis’ (World Bank15 February 2022) <https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2022/brief/chapter-1-introduction-the-economic-impacts-of-the-covid-19-crisis> accessed 5 October 2024.
[2] Lily Kuo, ‘Coronavirus: Panic and Anger in Wuhan as China Orders City into Lockdown’ (the Guardian23 January 2020) <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/23/coronavirus-panic-and-anger-in-wuhan-as-china-orders-city-into-lockdown> accessed 5 October 2024.
[3] Jamie Gumbrecht and Jacqueline Howard, ‘WHO Declares Novel Coronavirus Outbreak a Pandemic’ (CNN11 March 2020) <https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/11/health/coronavirus-pandemic-world-health-organization/index.html> accessed 5 October 2024.
[4] ‘China: Whistleblower Doctor Death Highlights Human Rights Failings in Coronavirus Outbreak’ (Amnesty International7 February 2020) <https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/02/china-doctor-death-highlights-human-rights-failings-in-coronavirus-outbreak/> accessed 5 October 2024.
[5] ‘SCMP’ (South China Morning Post13 March 2020) <https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coronavirus-chinas-first-confirmed-covid-19-case-traced-back> accessed 6 October 2024.
[6] ‘Discourse Wars and “Mask Diplomacy”: China’s Global Image Management in Times of Crisis’ [2018] Political Research Exchange <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2474736X.2024.2337632#abstract> accessed 6 October 2024.
[7] ‘China’s Global Health Diplomacy’ (Asia.fes.de2015) <https://asia.fes.de/news/chinas-global-health-diplomacy.html> accessed 6 October 2024.
[8] ‘China Accuses “Some Western Media” of COVID-19 Coverage Bias’ (AP News19 January 2023) <https://apnews.com/article/politics-health-covid-china-business-440d0f847dc9c54ad5e399cc56b8b48c> accessed 6 October 2024.
[9] Dora Vargha and Lukas Engelmann, ‘COVID: There’s a Strong Current of Pandemic Revisionism in the Mainstream Media, and It’s Dangerous’ (The Conversation16 February 2024) <https://theconversation.com/covid-theres-a-strong-current-of-pandemic-revisionism-in-the-mainstream-media-and-its-dangerous-222934> accessed 6 October 2024.
[10] ‘The Impact of COVID-19 on Patterns of International Relations and the World Order - the Dig’ (The Dig30 November 2020) <https://thedig.nz/transitional-diplomacy/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-patterns-of-international-relations-and-the-world-order/> accessed 6 October 2024.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author (s). They do not reflect the views or opinions of Diplomania or its members.
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