Source: NYT (2/7/20)
A Rare Online Revolt Emerges in China Over Death of Coronavirus Whistle-Blower
The doctor, Li Wenliang, had been silenced by the police after warning about the new coronavirus that has killed hundreds in China and sickened thousands.
By Li Yuan

A makeshift memorial for Dr. Li Wenliang at Wuhan City Central Hospital on Friday. Credit…Chris Buckley/The New York Times

They posted videos of the Les Misérables song, “Do You Hear the People Sing.” They invoked article No. 35 of China’s Constitution, which stipulates freedom of speech. They tweeted a phrase from the poem “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

The Chinese public have staged what amounts to an online revolt after the death of a doctor, Li Wenliang, who tried to warn of a mysterious virus that has since killed hundreds of people in China, infected tens of thousands and forced the government to corral many of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

Source: Center on Digital Culture and Society (2/3/20)
The Digital Radicals of Wuhan
Guobin Yang

IMAGE BY GUO JING

Since the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, social media have become a particularly important means of communication for people in Wuhan and other Chinese cities. The multi-function instant-messaging platform WeChat is crucial for relatively private communication among family members and acquaintances, as well as for public dissemination and discussion of outbreak-related information. In recent years, the microblogging platform Sina Weibo has been cleansed of its critical sentiments amidst state-sponsored campaigns of civilizing the web. Now it seems that Weibo has recovered from its reluctant docility, if only temporarily. It is filled with angry tweets about the scandalously inept responses of bureaucrats and government institutions to the public health crisis. Touching stories about ordinary people’s livelihood in Wuhan also abound. Continue reading →

Source: NYT (2/5/20)
The Subtle Muckrakers of the Coronavirus Epidemic
Reporters and citizen-journalists in China are asking hard questions about the crisis. Why is the government letting them?
By Maria Repnikova (the author of “Media Politics in China: Improvising Power Under Authoritarianism.”)

Journalists at a press conference about the coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, last month. Credit…Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

The outbreak of the coronavirus has brought international scrutiny down on China’s political system. Again. A few commentators have applauded the efficiency of the Chinese Communist Party’s response, but most have zoomed in on its weaknesses. Some have even blamed the party itself for the outbreak, calling the disease a “Communist coronavirus” or “the Belt and Road Pandemic.”

Once again, China is largely being depicted as a monolith, and the party as though it exercises near-complete control, “crushing almost every wisp of freedom and oversight,” according to one columnist. But the party’s authority isn’t absolute. And to suggest that it might be is to obscure the dynamism that Chinese society has managed to preserve over the years despite the government’s tightening restrictions. Continue reading →

Source: NYT (2/2/20)
Coronavirus and the Panic Epidemic
The Chinese government is going all-out because it knows the people don’t entirely trust it.
By Ian Johnson

Riding the nearly deserted Beijing subway this week. Credit…Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

BEIJING — The absurdity of the situation hit me on Wednesday when I was coming home from a local bar at 8 p.m. I had ridden my bike a few hours earlier to a park for a walk and then to meet a friend — my first human contact in five days, excluding the cashier at the grocery store.

But the side gate I’d used to leave the enormous Communist-era compound was now chained shut. What? A notice in Chinese said it was locked to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

So I headed toward the north entrance. That one is for pedestrians and has two barriers set slightly apart, just wide enough to get through on foot. That’s O.K., I thought, I can squeeze by with my bike and be home in a few minutes. Continue reading →

Source: China Media Project (2/5/20)
WRESTLING BACK THE AGENDA
by David Bandurski

Cover image by Nicolo Lazzati available at Flickr.com under CC license.

Anotice released to Chinese media this week concerning the coronavirus outbreak suggests that in terms of information and media policy we have now entered a new phase in which propaganda authorities are making a renewed push to secure the source of information and wrestle back control of public opinion.

Over the past two weeks, as the scale of the epidemic and the attempted cover-up became clear, Chinese commercial media and “self-media” (自媒体) led the charge in reporting and commentary, and authorities found it difficult to restrain information — particularly in the face of public anger and insatiable demand. This pattern is very similar to what we saw in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the 2011 Wenzhou train collision, providing a narrow window of opportunity to more enterprising media.

That window now seems to be closing. The focus of the authorities is on controlling the source and then pushing reporting and framing by trusted Party-state media as “authoritative” information. The instructions are as follows:

Reports concerning the epidemic must take [information from] authoritative departments as the standard. Sources of articles must be strictly regulated (严格规范), independent reporting (自采) is strictly prohibited, and the use of non-regulated (非规范) article sources, particularly self-media (自媒体) is strictly prohibited. Without joint arrangements [with authorities], daring to use outside media reports is strictly prohibited. When distributing authoritative reports, the original meaning of the news must not be twisted, such as through “misleading headlines” (标题党). Pop-up means must not be used to push unregulated articles or information, unverified information and information that might have a negative influence. Do not render commentary on our global mobilization to purchase prevention and control materials, in order to avoid interference with our overseas purchasing work. Do not render commentary on the economic impact of the epidemic, resolutely preventing talk of the Chinese economy being undermined by the epidemic. On the extension of the Spring Festival holiday in various locales, do not collect [information], do not make comparisons, and do not relate this with hyping or commentary to the impact on economic development.