China Revels in U.S. Virus Missteps, Helping Xi Win Back Trust

(Bloomberg) -- When New York physician Matt McCarthy complained on American television that he lacked the coronavirus tests he needed, he was seeking to spur action at home. Instead, he gained fame on Chinese social media as an example of the U.S.’s stumbles with the disease.

The Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper shared a clip of McCarthy’s CNBC appearance on its official TikTok account, in which he described the shortage as a “national scandal,” securing more than 1 million likes.The post was among a flurry promoted by state media this week as evidence that China had a better approach to managing the virus first discovered in humans in its central province of Hubei.

“Many people found that even these developed countries are not handling this crisis as well as China,” Beijing-based cardiologist Zhang Ming posted on the Twitter-like Weibo platform. “They fell into the same traps as China once did, one after another. The early lambasting of China just ended up falling back on themselves.”

Beijing has seized on missteps by the U.S. and other Western countries in their fights against the coronavirus to regain control of the propaganda narrative at home. That’s helped counter criticism that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government was slow to respond to the outbreak, while validating its hard-line approach, including locking down an area of some 60 million people.

Chinese social media has been flooded in recent days with posts highlighting how the West has failed to contain a virus that has infected almost 100,000 people worldwide. As China’s figures show local infections slowing, they’re rising across the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, boosting Xi’s case for his containment efforts.

“This is well-orchestrated propaganda to show the world China is setting a model in fighting the epidemic,” Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Centre for China Studies. “China wants to show its forceful measures to quarantine Hubei province have worked, and would like this ‘China model’ to be exported to other countries. This is a self-defense mechanism for the criticisms that China is actually the culprit in spreading the virus.”

McCarthy, a staff physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and author, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Friday.

Many remain skeptical after weeks of criticism that the government didn’t act early enough. Alongside the widespread comments about McCarthy, many Weibo users demanded answers on the fate of whistle-blower Li Wenliang, the 34-year-old Wuhan opthamologist who was reprimanded by authorities for attempting to raise the alarm about the disease and later died from it.

Li, whose death triggered rare public anger at the leadership, was officially honored by the government this week. Still, “almost one month has passed since National Supervisory Commission sent a team to investigate the case, and still they haven’t figured out,” one Weibo user said.

The U.S. has become a major target, driven in part by anti-American sentiment still swirling in the wake of President Donald Trump’s trade war. The U.S. criticized China’s response to the outbreak early on, with National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow saying the Trump administration was “disappointed” with the level of transparency.

In recent days, Chinese internet users have accused the U.S. of similarly attempting to obscure the size outbreaks. They’ve cited the Centers for Disease Control’s decision to stop reporting the number of people tested for coronavirus as evidence.

“The U.S. infection data will only be a rough estimation from mathematical models,” read one widely shared post on the WeChat messaging app. On Weibo, the CDC’s halt was the second-biggest news search Thursday, with views of related posts surpassing 400 million.

The party’s disciplinary body also published an article Friday lamenting the “confusing case tallying” and “hefty fees” to test for the virus in America. State media followed suit, with the Global Times citing the Chinese CDC’s chief epidemiologist, Zeng Guang, as saying the number of reported cases in the U.S. so far was the “tip of the iceberg.”

Chinese social media users pointed to the decision to go ahead with the L.A. Marathon on Sunday and Trump’s refusal to call off a campaign rally as examples of U.S. incompetence. Ahead of presidential primary voting Tuesday, Global Times Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin questioned candidate’s decision to go ahead with mass gatherings, even as events around the world were canceled.

“Is election of the politicians more important than public health?” Hu said in tweet.

The party-run People’s Daily newspaper published an article Thursday touting recognition for the country’s approach from foreign leaders, trade associations and not-for-profit organizations. During a briefing in Beijing the same day, Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the party’s International Liaison Department, said that politicians worldwide had recognized Xi’s “brilliant leadership.”

The superiority of China’s system was a recurring theme on social media, including widespread criticism of recommendations American public health officials that healthy people shouldn’t wear face masks -- a view shared by the World Health Organization. Many Chinese citizens believe face masks are essential and face criticism if they venture out without one.

“It’s a consistent strategy of Beijing’s to capitalize on recognition from foreign countries which in this case might offset the flood of anger towards the government’s mishandling of the virus early on,” said Deng Yuwen, a former deputy editor of the party’s Study Times journal. “But it’s not easy to change the public opinion fundamentally, as people can secure information through so many self-run media accounts and the general attitude is still critical.”

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Bloomberg