China's Propaganda Machine in Overdrive

Medical staff in full suits looking after coronavirus patients in Wuhan

The Chinese government is anxious to show it is doing everything to battle the coronavirus, which means all hands on deck in the propaganda department.

There are video clips of mostly men who are seen dashing into police stations or government offices and dropping off boxes of masks or lots of cash and then running away.

It's meant to show people's selflessness, that they are willing to give away their life savings to the authorities to fight the coronavirus. If they ran away, how would they know all these details? Or maybe these people just robbed a bank beforehand?



The first video seemed shocking but sweet, but now there are about 41 different video clips which makes them even more staged. Why would so many people run into a police station or government office, dump bricks of cash on the counter and then run off again? It boggles the mind.

Then today CCTV has a clip of apparently two nurses decked out in full hazmat gear complete with plastic shields and blue suits yellow shoe covers in a coordinated dance outside of the hospital. Apparently they were trying to make light of the situation and enjoying a fun moment.



Really? From the clips I've seen of nurses having mental breakdowns, them dancing like children is completely off the wall and ridiculous. It's so obvious this clip was begging for sympathy.

But then there are uncomfortable video clips of more than a dozen nurses in Gansu province having their heads shaved, calling them "the most beautiful warriors!" in a bid to show their devotion to fighting the coronavirus. These women are crying, which seems to indicate they were coerced into doing this. Why didn't the men go bald too?



And there are horrific stories of nurses being forced to take birth control pills so they wouldn't menstruate (as going to the bathroom would be too much trouble), and they were chastised for asking for sanitary pads and tampons, saying they "lacked the spirit of devotion".

While the propaganda army was hoping these clips of the nurses would make the public sympathize with them, it actually enraged people that the women were being treated this way and vented their wrath online.

Young people in particular have had enough of the propaganda machine, as they can access a lot of information and clips via WeChat or going over the Great Firewall to see what people outside of China are saying about the coronavirus in their own country.

People are still very angry about Dr Li's Wenliang's death

They were particularly angry following the death of Dr Li Wenliang, who tried to warn his former classmates about the coronavirus, and were angry that the police accused him of spreading rumours.

"In the past month, many young people have been reading a lot of firsthand information and in-depth media reports about the epidemic on the internet," says Stephanie Xia, a 26-year-old in Shanghai in The New York Times. She says they are angry and confused about what they learned.

"There's some gap between what the young people are really like and what the government believes what they're like," Xia adds.

For young people today, this coronavirus and how they experienced it is much like other seminal events, like the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, the Wenzhou train crash in 2011, the downfall of Bo Xilai in 2013.

How China's next generation is influenced by how they went through this year's coronavirus crisis will forever shape their perceptions of the Communist Party of China and their trust in the government.

One gets the feeling it's not going to be very solid...

Sichuan Earthquake 10 Years On

Many buildings collapsed during the magnitude 8 earthquake in 2008

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake that killed at least 87,000 and injured 370,000

I distinctly remember that day. I was in Beijing working in the office on the sixth floor of a low-rise building and at 2.28pm, I suddenly felt woozy, like I had drank something strong and was feeling the effects in my head.

Except I wasn't getting drunk, but feeling the powerful reverberations of the earthquake that was magnitude 8 on the Richter scale, the epicenter in Wenchuan county, in Sichuan province.

A memorial clock perpetually stops at 2.28pm

The following days and nights were constant updates of the horrific scenes of utter devastation, with many buildings leveled to the ground. It was discovered 7,444 schools were destroyed in the quake, while other buildings nearby were still standing.

Many of the dead were children (over 5,400), which led many grieving parents to ask about the construction of these institutions -- to them they seemed like "tofu schools", buildings that were shoddily built.

Premier at the time Wen Jiabao promised to launch an investigation to find out the truth, but 10 years on parents are still waiting. They are angry and disappointed not much has been revealed, let alone not much compensation, which probably makes them feel there's some kind of cover up.

Ai Weiwei began his activism with the Sichuan earthquake

The tragedy also sparked citizen reporting -- as many victims were not named at first, some people like Tang Zuoren and artist Ai Weiwei created their own activism with an army of volunteers by trying to find out all the names of those who died.

At first a large number of names were missing, but thanks to the efforts of volunteer       activists, as many people they could find were accounted for. I remember years later seeing a piece of work where Ai set up a small room and inside the walls were covered with computer-generated charts of the student's name, age, and sex.

It was a stark and factual reminder of a tragedy.

This marked the beginning of Ai's activism in China, that later led him to have a brain hemorrhage thanks to Chinese police beating his head because Ai dared to try to find the truth.

Shoes still lying around 10 years later.

Also this was the last time that reporters in China could go outside their city, county, province to report on a major story. Perhaps because there were so many negatives -- the roads were blocked and hard to get heavy equipment there, the chances of finding people alive were less apparent with each passing day.

As a result, since then, when tragedies occur, all domestic media outlets must use official state media, particularly Xinhua stories. No one can do independent reporting anymore.

Meanwhile the government quickly turned this into a national tragedy for propaganda -- with official days of mourning, and there was so much money donated. Did it really go to the victims? We don't know.

The government can't stop people from remembering this incident, But what happens from now on? Will the authorities finally tell the truth of what happened to the people who seemed to have died unnecessarily? What comfort can leaders give them?