How the Chinese Party-State Uses Public Criticism to Reframe the Corona Crisis

Some observers regarded the COVID-19 pandemic as the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “Chernobyl moment”, whereas others believe that the authoritarian one-party regime even emerged strengthened from the crisis. It is reasonable to assume that the CCP’s propaganda authorities are striving to project an image that conforms to the latter narrative. This paper analyzes state-society interactions on the Internet during the Corona crisis to trace the contours of this image and its formation. Based on content from more than 200 government complaint websites, this paper examines how the CCP tries to shape public opinion on the government's handling of the crisis by co-opting the public into generating this very narrative. Specifically, thousands of online messages containing complaints and criticism by the public are not only allowed to remain online, but are also publicly addressed by government officials, frequently in a way that acknowledges the criticism and solves the problem. While content that addresses the political dimension of the crisis is censored, criticism related to crisis-induced challenges of governance is selectively amplified. In this way, the crisis is framed as a governance challenge that critical citizens and responsive government officials work hand in hand to resolve. In contrast, any content on the political causes of the crisis and the suffering it caused is strictly censored. Hence, the propaganda authorities attempt to divert attention away from the systemic failures that caused the crisis towards resolving its negative impacts.