New post with @vanessa_molter: “Mask Diplomacy: Chinese Narratives in the COVID Era”

We analyzed Twitter data to see how China is using its state media to shape the narrative around medical donations on Twitter. Our findings: (1/) https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/news/covid-mask-diplomacy

Tweets about Chinese mask donations surged in mid-March, when COVID spread within China slowed down. As outbreaks increased globally, tweets began to reorient towards virus updates abroad and Chinese donations to foreign countries (2/)

Japan stands out for receiving relatively more coverage about its donations to China. Lots of tweets mention Japan’s “goodwill” and how Chinese donations to Japan “reciprocate” their previous support. This reflects reports about how COVID has brought China and Japan closer. (3/)

China also frames donations in the context of foreign policy goals. For example, tweets referencing Canada frequently mention how Huawei has been “quietly” shipping equipment to help Canada. Recall that this was during the ongoing Huawei trial in Vancouver (4/)

However, donations-related tweets has been decreasing since March. This could be because of criticism of Beijing's approach in the West. Internally, Chinese scholars have called on Beijing to tone down “wolf warrior” diplomacy: (5/) https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3084274/too-soon-too-loud-chinese-foreign-policy-advisers-tell-wolf

Implications? China’s public diplomacy is evolving and it is sensitive to the success of its efforts. Recent research by @mattinglee and James Sundquist show that some tones are more persuasive than others: (6/) https://twitter.com/mattinglee/status/1268592704704913409?s=20

Whether Beijing can adapt tactics successfully in the future is TBD... (7/end)

Also, more findings in @vanessa_molter's thread: https://twitter.com/vanessa_molter/status/1272964998290161664?s=20