COVID-19 misinformation by China
The Chinese government has actively engaged in disinformation to downplay the emergence of COVID-19 in China and manipulate information about its spread around the world.[1][2] The government also detained whistleblowers and journalists claiming they were spreading rumors when they were publicly raising concerns about people being hospitalized for a "mysterious illness" resembling SARS.[3][4]
For broader coverage of this topic, see COVID-19 misinformation by governments and Chinese government response to COVID-19.
The blame for the failure to report cases of COVID-19 at the onset is unclear because of the difficulty pinpointing it as a failure by either local or national officials.[5] The Associated Press reported that, "increasing political repression has made officials more hesitant to report cases without a clear green light from the top."[5] There are ongoing investigations in an effort to understand what happened, including an investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO) which will probe into what Wuhan officials knew at the time of the outbreak.[6]
A 14 February 2021 exposé by the Associated Press said that China took a "leading role" in spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19.[7]
Initial response
Downplaying early signs
In the first weeks, the dangers to the public were downplayed, leaving 11 million Wuhan residents unaware and vulnerable to the virus. Political motivations were blamed in part for the reluctance by local officials to go public as they were "preparing for their annual congresses in January".[8] Despite the increase in COVID cases, officials continued to declare that "there had likely been no more infections."[8]
In a March 2020 interview, Ai Fen, the director of Wuhan Central Hospital's emergency department, stated in an interview that "she was told by superiors ... that Wuhan's health commission had issued a directive that medical workers were not to disclose anything about the virus, or the disease it caused, to avoid sparking a panic."[9]
Chris Buckley and Steven Lee Myers wrote in the New York Times that "The government's initial handling of the epidemic allowed the virus to gain a tenacious hold. At critical moments, officials chose to put secrecy and order ahead of openly confronting the growing crisis to avoid public alarm and political embarrassment."[8]
By summer 2020, China had the virus largely under control.[10] In December 2020, the BBC published a retrospective into how Chinese state media and China's online government censors had suppressed negative information and propagandized what was reported.[11]
Silencing of medical workers
Li Wenliang was an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital. On 30 December 2019, he had seen seven cases of a virus he thought looked like SARS. He sent a message to fellow doctors in a chat group warning them to wear protective clothing to avoid infection. He and seven other doctors were later told to come to the Public Security Bureau and told to sign a letter. The letter accused them of "making false comments" that would "disturb the social order". Wang Guangbao, who is a Chinese surgeon and science writer, later said that by 1 January, people in medical circles thought that a SARS-like virus might be spreading, but the police warning discouraged them from talking openly about it.[12] Li later died of the virus, and China later apologized to his family and overturned the warning in the letter.[13][14]
A nurse said that by early January, doctors and nurses had noticed that they too were getting sick. Hospital administrators made long calls to the City Government and Health Commission. However, medical personnel were not allowed to wear protective gear, because it would cause panic. Health and governance experts place much of the blame on higher-level officials, as local authorities in China can be punished for reporting bad news.[15]
Arrest or disappearance of citizen journalists
As of December 2020, around a year after the outbreak, at least 47 journalists were currently in detention in China for their reporting on the initial coronavirus outbreak.[16]
Chinese citizen journalist Chen Qiushi started reporting on the outbreak from Wuhan on 23 January 2020. He disappeared on 6 February. On 24 September, a friend said he had been found. He was being supervised by "a certain government department", but would not face prosecution for the moment because he had not contacted opposition groups.[17][18]
Fang Bin is a Chinese citizen journalist who broadcast images of Wuhan during the outbreak several times on social media. He was arrested several times during February 2020. The last arrest was on 9 February, and as of September 2020, he had not been seen in public since.[18]
Li Zehua was reporting on the outbreak from Wuhan in February 2020. On 26 February, he was caught by the authorities after livestreaming part of the chase. On 22 April, he returned to social media with a brief statement in which he quoted a proverb that the human mind was "prone to err." A friend said he may have been told by authorities to make the statement.[19][20]
Another citizen journalist, Zhang Zhan, stopped sharing information on social media in May 2020. On 28 December, she was sentenced to 4 years in prison. According to one of her attorneys, she was convicted of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble".[21]
Propagation of disinformation
Kazakh virus
In July 2020, misinformation about a deadlier virus appearing alongside COVID-19 in Kazakhstan was traced to the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan. The misinformation was picked up by Xinhua News Agency and from there spread to other Chinese outlets and internationally.[75]
Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
In January 2021, multiple Chinese state and CCP-affiliated media outlets, including CGTN and the Global Times, raised doubts about the efficacy of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine, calling for an investigation into the deaths of elderly people in Norway and Germany after receiving the vaccine. According to Reuters, the reports made allegations of "deliberately downplaying the deaths" and "using propaganda power to promote the Pfizer vaccine and smearing Chinese vaccines" and touted Chinese vaccines as "relatively safer due to their mature technology".[76]
In April 2021, the European External Action Service published a report that cited Chinese state media outlets for "selective highlighting" of potential vaccine side-effects and "disregarding contextual information or ongoing research" to present Western vaccines as unsafe.[77][78]
International response
On 25 March 2020, the "intentional disinformation campaign" by China was discussed among the Group of Seven.[87]
On 17 March 2020, CGTN aired a video in Arabic that Reporters Without Borders classified as misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.[88][89][90]
In August 2021, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs asked Chinese state media to remove widely quoted allegations, attributed to a non-existing Swiss biologist, that the United States pressured the WHO to blame China for the pandemic.[91][92][93]