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(Speaking Chinese) Good evening.
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The Chinese government has one of the most extensive propaganda networks in the world inside the country, but it also aggressively works to influence how it's perceived outside its borders.
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"Good morning, President Xi!"
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China has invested billions into bolstering its image abroad.
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Its state-run news outlets push out messages in English around the clock.
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"You're watching CGTN."
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"Live in Beijing."
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"From Nairobi."
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"Washington, D.C."
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And its diplomats have flocked to Twitter in the last year.
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But what happens when this massive P.R. apparatus has to do major damage control?
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We analyzed thousands of tweets from Chinese state media and official accounts and found three dominant messages China wants to project to the world.
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Here's what we learned. [Theme 1: Spinning Optimism.]
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A novel coronavirus hit the Chinese city of Wuhan in January.
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Early whistleblowers were silenced.
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People were angry about a government cover-up.
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(Speaking Chinese) No hospital beds! No medicine!
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(Speaking Chinese) All the news on CCTV is fake!
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But in the majority of tweets we analyzed, state-owned publications pushed a much more optimistic view, promoting what they said was an effective response.
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They are sharing videos like this.
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(Speaking Chinese) Since makeshift hospitals have started receiving patients.
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(Speaking Chinese) Patients can not only get free treatment but also free food.
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(Speaking Chinese) In addition, some people have also been organizing square dances.
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The Chinese Communist Party refers to this as positive energy, only focusing on the bright side of an issue.
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China did take drastic measures to try and stem the outbreak, but that's the only story China wants the world to see.
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And state media is eager to run praise from foreign experts to back up China's successes.
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It's a remarkable response that's being organized in China to contain the virus.
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One tweet from state media that did reveal Chinese citizens' discontent—it was quickly deleted.
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[Theme 2: Protecting China's Image.]
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Once the virus spread across the world, China started positioning itself as being at the forefront of fighting the pandemic.
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It presented itself as a partner, a grateful recipient, and more recently a selfless leader, highlighting large donations from Chinese companies and the government.
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(Speaking Chinese) Stay strong, China. Stay strong, Japan.
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China hasn't typically disparaged other countries' responses to the virus, with one exception—the United States.
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"President Donald Trump has been accused of denying, downplaying and outright rejecting the concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak."
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[Theme 3: Disputing the Virus's Origin.]
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Another thing we noticed are Chinese outlets disputing the origin of the virus.
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It all started in late February with a renowned Chinese epidemiologist.
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(Speaking Chinese) The infection was first spotted in China but the virus might not have originated in China.
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Around the same time, the C.D.C. reported the first case in the United States with an unknown origin.
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A screenshot of the announcement incorrectly translated in Chinese began to trend online and was untouched by Chinese government censors.
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And a high-ranking government spokesperson actively pushed disinformation about where the virus came from.
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(Speaking Chinese) Right now, the work of tracing the virus origin is still ongoing.
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(Speaking Chinese) There is no conclusion yet.
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A government giving an optimistic spin to bad news is not unique.
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"We want to go big, go solid. the country is very strong, we've never been so strong."
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But the scale of the Chinese propaganda machine is, and it's clear that it's being deployed to try and tell the world a new story about the coronavirus pandemic.