China Reverses COVID Propaganda After Years of Dire Warnings

China Reverses COVID Propaganda After Years of Dire Warnings

Two days before anti-lockdown protests erupted in dozens of Chinese cities in late November, WeChat, China's do-everything app, deleted an open letter that questioned the wisdom of unyielding COVID-19 measures. In addition to widespread grievances about pandemic strictures, demonstrators would later also rally against the government's hard-line approach to censorship.

The widely read post, scrubbed a day after being published on November 22, included a rhetorical question about the FIFA World Cup, which had opened in Qatar the weekend before. Comparing jubilant, maskless soccer fans with the millions of Chinese living in lockdown, the author asked whether China was "even on the same planet."

Longtime China watchers told Newsweek that the tournament may have played some role in pushing the Chinese public's frustrations over the edge; others said its influence on the country's pent-up sports fans were overblown. Already after the opening games, however, rumors claimed Chinese broadcasts were blurring out fans to avoid showing maskless faces. The reality, as in most cases, lay somewhere between.