Media coverage of China was more than twice as likely to be positive than negative in 2020, despite covering up the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic which <a href="https://covid19.who.int/">caused</a> 3,325,260 deaths, set off a worldwide recession that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51706225">contracted</a> the global economy by an estimated 4.4%, and dramatically altered life for every single human being on the planet. More than half (56%) of journalists in a global survey said news stories about the People’s Republic of China had become more favorable during 2020, while only 24% said they saw more critical stories.
Such an upsurge seems surprising, since reports indicate that China deliberately <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-intel-report-suggests-china-intentionally-concealed-the-severity-of-pandemic-to-hoard-supplies">concealed</a> the extent of the pandemic in the early days of the Wuhan outbreak and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/04/02/us-exports-masks-ppe-china-surged-early-phase-coronavirus/5109747002/">expropriated</a> more than $60 million in PPE from the United States. Then the CCP <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-allegedly-blocked-u-s-companies-from-exporting-medical-safety-gear-as-pandemic-exploded-report-says">barred</a> Western companies based in China from exporting PPE to the United States, while selling the West face masks produced by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-forcing-uighurs-to-make-face-masks-sold-in-us-josh-hawley-wants-companies-held-accountable">slave labor</a> of the nation’s persecuted Uighur Muslim minority. Many of these Chinese exports proved useless or harmful. The Chinese company Crawford Technology Group <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/chinese-manufacturer-charged-exporting-defective-and-misbranded-masks-falsely-purporting">sold</a> the United States 140,400 defective KN95 respirator masks before the Trump administration filed charges last July.
8 in 10 journalists also said they had witnessed a spike in Chinese disinformation during 2020 — including every single journalist polled in North or South America.
The new <a href="https://www.ifj.org/fileadmin/user_upload/IFJ_-_The_Covid_Story_Report.pdf">report</a>, released this month by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), reveals how Chinese Communist officials overcame these issues to enjoy an adoring press. In short, they got it the old fashioned way: they bought it. More specifically, through exporting PPE and its &#8220;Sinopharm.&#8221;
The difference in media coverage between nations which received Chinese COVID-19 relief and those that did not is clear: 60% of stories in non-recipient countries focused on China’s culpability for the global pandemic, but 63% of stories in recipient nations highlighted how China’s “fast action against COVID-19 has helped other countries.”
This “medical diplomacy” gave the PRC leverage to fix the news in its favor. The IFJ notes that “57 percent of Chinese vaccine recipients said they had seen attempts by Chinese actors to shape media narratives regarding local politics in their countries, compared to 34 percent of nonrecipient countries.”
And often, the Chinese Communist narrative succeeded. Nearly two-thirds of recipient nations said their media’s image of China improved, and that they were more likely to see pro-Chinese presence on social media, during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Twitter later reported more than 173,000 accounts spreading CCP propaganda, particularly against Hong Kong.
“In some countries, China was also seen as the purveyor of the most accurate information about the new coronavirus, showing its growing influence over global narratives,” the report notes. That sometimes included U.S. legacy media outlets like NBC’s “Today Show,” which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rantz-nbc-news-is-actively-promoting-chinese-propaganda">regurgitated</a> CCP propaganda that Beijing had actually “delayed the arrival of the coronavirus” on U.S. shores. NBC’s Ken Dilanian also filed an article titled, “As U.S. struggles to stem coronavirus, China asserts itself as global leader.”
Often, China simultaneously improved its own image and harmed that of its host nation. The Chinese Communist Party targeted hard-hit Italy with “an aggressive Chinese disinformation campaign,” including deep-fake videos purporting to show Italians applauding Chinese medical aid while singing the Chinese national anthem. (The original video showed Italians applauding Italian medical workers.)
“They tried to say that the virus has in reality been born in Italy,” one Italian journalist told the IFS. “This was just outlandish, fake news.”
During the height of his cult of celebrity, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-544-the-european-virus">described</a> COVID-19 as a “European virus.”
In addition, China penetrated Western nations by offering Western media outlets state-run propaganda at no charge. Many of those surveyed admitted to printing stories, airing documentaries, or relying on the increasingly sophisticated outlets for key facts about China. “Wherever the readers are, wherever the viewers are, that is where propaganda reports must extend their new tentacles,” President Xi Jinping said in 2016.
The greatest surge of negative publicity for China came in North America, where President Donald Trump branded COVID-19 the “China virus,” highlighted Chinese human rights abuses, and launched a global trade war against the world’s second-largest economy (and the largest mercantilist economic power).
Former Pentagon intelligence analyst Dan Garrett <a href="https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/how-china-used-foreign-media-reset-image-during-pandemic">told</a> the Voice of America that the Chinese Communist Party exploited the pandemic “to promote the socialist system and the leadership of the Communist Party as superior to the Western system of democracy, universal values, and freedom.”
If China can improve its global image during a worldwide viral plague and recession that it caused, imagine what lies ahead — and how feckless legacy media outlets will amplify their message.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

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The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee is asking members of Congress not to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing over China’s human rights abuses against the ethnic minority Uyghur population in the country. 
In a <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000179-634d-d9cd-af7f-67ffbe9d0000&amp;nname=playbook&amp;nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nrid=0000014e-f115-dd93-ad7f-f91513e50001&amp;nlid=630318">letter</a> obtained by Politico, Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the committee, wrote, “There may be no more important Olympic and Paralympic Games than the ones ahead. The world spent more than a year isolated, quarantined, and afraid. Watching the world’s Olympians and Paralympians compete at both the upcoming Summer and Winter Games will be an inspiring human achievement. Thousands of competitors from around the world standing before the Olympic and Paralympic flame will mark the world’s emergence from the past year’s troubles.”
Hirshland noted how some members of Congress have called for a boycott of the Olympic Games and “have raised valid concerns about China’s conduct, including the oppression of the Uyghur population which the United States has designated a genocide.”
The letter continued, “We too are troubled by the situation in China. The USOPC does not condone actions that undermine the core values of the Olympic movement—values that include diversity, peace, and respect for human dignity.”
Hirshland stated, however, that “an athlete boycott of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is not the solution to geopolitical issues,” citing a recent Morning Consult poll that showed that “roughly two-thirds of Americans oppose a boycott of the 2022 Winter Games.”
Hirshland noted that the history of Olympic boycotts is not an encouraging one. She wrote, “In 1980, the U.S. government called for an athlete boycott of the 1980 Olympic Summer Games in Moscow as a way of pressuring the Soviet Union into leaving Afghanistan. As a result, 461 American athletes…qualified to compete in Moscow only to have the opportunity taken from them. Many never had the chance to compete at the Olympic Games again.”
Hirshland added that “their sacrifice had arguably no diplomatic benefit: The Soviet Union stayed in Afghanistan for another decade”
Hirshland argued that the Games “are a chance for the United States to showcase the values that make our country strong and respected: Our belief in fair competition; our commitment to the dignity of all people; and our support of the hard work and lifelong commitment of athletes from every state in the nation.”
New <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-dramatic-decline-in-birth-rate-among-ethnic-minorities-in-xinjiang-largest-in-recent-history">information</a> about the Xinjiang region was recently revealed after the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that the populations of ethnic minorities in the area had seen a drastic decrease in birth rates over the past few years. 
The <a href="https://www.aspi.org.au/report/family-deplanning-birthrates-xinjiang">report</a> found that in April 2017, Chinese Communist Party officials in Xinjiang began “strike-hard” campaigns against “illegal births” with the main goal to “reduce and stabilize a moderate birth level” and lower the birth rate in southern Xinjiang by at least 4.00 per thousand from the levels in 2016. Before this move, there had been exceptions from family-planning efforts for indigenous nationalities. 
The report stated, “The crackdown has led to an unprecedented and precipitous drop in official birth rates in Xinjiang since 2017. The birth rate across the region fell by nearly half (48.74 percent) in the two years between 2017 and 2019.” The most intense drops have occurred in places where Uyghurs and other indigenous people are located. Throughout counties that are populated by a majority of indigenous people, the birth rate dropped, on average, by 43.7% in one year between 2017 and 2018. The birth rate in counties populated by 90% or more indigenous people dropped by 56.5%, on average, in that same year.
Last month, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson in China <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-warns-of-robust-chinese-response-to-possible-u-s-boycott-of-olympics">pushed back against allegations</a> that there are human rights violations taking place against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. He warned of a nonspecific “robust Chinese response” to a potential boycott of the Olympics, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-winter-olympics-boycotts-beijing-2020-tokyo-olympics-a0defdcf7468519da87255c2a383d6fd">The Associated Press</a> reported. 
“The politicization of sports will damage the spirit of the Olympic Charter and the interests of athletes from all countries,” said the spokesperson, Zhao Lijian. “The international community including the U.S. Olympic Committee will not accept it.”
 The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

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The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee is asking members of Congress not to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing over China’s humans rights abuses against the ethnic minority Uyghur population in the country. 

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How China Bought Positive Media Coverage During COVID-19, According To Damning Report

U.S. Olympic Committee Urges Congress Not To Boycott Beijing Olympics

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