Covid-19, the Chinese communist party, and the search for legitimacy in the international arena

Bibliographic Data

ID21790253
AuthorsDaniel Ricardo Lemus Delgado (0000-0003-1002-5319, Tecnológico de Monterrey, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume15
Issue2
Pages271-283
Publication date2022-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueChinese Journal of Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1754-4769 • E-ISSN: 1754-4750
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17544750.2022.2052131
OpenAlexW4220982820
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited9

The emergence of COVID-19 in the People’s Republic of China, a one-party state, posed a severe threat to the political legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This threat had its origins in the context of a growing rivalry between China and the United States, prompting the CCP to launch an offensive to win the battle for narratives about the nation’s role in the outbreak. Through both traditional and social media, Chinese diplomats carried out an aggressive campaign to demonstrate that China was the solution and not the cause of the pandemic. In addition, the CCP generated a discourse about the superiority of the Chinese political system in containing the pandemic, contrasting it with the response of liberal democracies. This article concludes that although the primary goal of the Chinese media campaign was to shape a favorable opinion of the CCP at home, the party was also concerned with bolstering its legitimacy abroad by courting international approval for its handling of the pandemic

China · Communism · Economics · Legitimacy · Offensive · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rivalry · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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