No, China Isn’t Winning the Virus Propaganda Battle
If Beijing really wants to make a bid for global leadership, it needs to do more to help developing nations weather this crisis.
This time, China needs to show it can fix what’s broken.
Photographer: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images
The last global crisis was China’s coming-out party. In the years after the 2008 crash, its massive stimulus became the primary engine of global growth. Its stature rose alongside that of new multilateral groupings such as the G-20. And it developed an arsenal of arguments against the liberal, market-driven, economic and political order that the West had long promoted.
At least, that’s how many leaders in Beijing saw things. So, it isn’t surprising that those leaders are now looking to turn this new crisis to advantage as well.