Boris Johnson in hospital: a Chinese gaze at Western democracies in the COVID-19 pandemic

Peng, Altman Yuzhu; Zhang, Ivy Shixin; Cummings, James; Zhang, Xiaoxiao

doi:10.1177/1329878x20954452

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In the context of the Zhihu community, the largely positive sentiments towards the CCP and TCM might also be a consequence of the CQA site's algorithmic design, which privileges certain type of commentaries. Yet, in association with recent studies unveiling the rise of nationalist sentiments in China during the pandemic (de Kloet et al, 2020;Peng et al, 2020;Zhang, 2020a), the research findings indeed shed light on how the intersection of scientific and political discourses plays out in Chinese digital cultures in the times when public health affairs become ever more important. To appreciate the intersecting vectors in the Chinese digital environment, we encourage future research to move beyond textual analysis-based research by engaging with both Internet users and government officials.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

“…Amid the pandemic sweeping across the outside world, the government's pandemic response has encouraged nationalist sentiments, with both paid commentators and self-motivated pro-regime citizens mobilised to generate acclaim for the CCP's leadership on social media platforms (Zhang, 2020a). Yet the pandemic has opened up opportunities for wider social debates (Peng, Zhang, Cummings, & Zhang, 2020). In this sense an analysis of the TCM debate on social media allows us to unpack the interplay between medical commentary and political ideology in the restrictive Chinese digital environment.…”

Section: The Political Debates On Traditional Chinese Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

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Traditional Chinese medicine works: a politicised scientific debate in the COVID-19 pandemic

Peng

Chen

2021

Asian Journal of Communication

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The COVID-19 pandemic provoked public attention to medical treatments across the world. In China, a debate on the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) took place amid the government's active promotion of it for COVID-19 patients. Rather than addressing such a debate from the perspective of medical science or health communication, this paper explores how TCM was politicised on Chinese social media. The research is based on a case study, collecting data from the most popular Chinese community question-answering (CQA) site -Zhihu. By triangulating content analysis (CA) and thematic analysis (TA), we reveal how nationalist sentiments and dissenting opinions are expressed through approval or criticism of TCM among the Zhihu community. The research findings uncover the political momentum behind the debate by shedding light on how Zhihu users engage with public affairs through medical commentaries. This paper thus contributes to understanding the politicised discourse of TCM in China in the wake of the global pandemic.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: The Political Debates On Traditional Chinese Medicinementioning

confidence: 99%

Traditional Chinese medicine works: a politicised scientific debate in the COVID-19 pandemic

Peng

Chen

2021

Asian Journal of Communication

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“…The affective modulation of Internet users’ discursive practice is not independent of sociopolitical contexts (Peng et al, 2020). The commentary sections of Chinese news portals are subject to the CCP’s Internet censorship, evidenced by the fact that their launching companies are required by law to allow user-generated content circulated on the sites to undergo the government’s ‘computer security inspections’ (NetEase, 2019: 18).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amplification of regional discrimination on Chinese news portals: An affective critical discourse analysis

Peng

2020

Convergence

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Regional discrimination is a significant social issue that leads to divided societies. In China, people from Henan Province, who are verbally abused by non-Henan users on the Internet, are often victims of regional discrimination. This article presents a case study of Chinese Internet users’ discriminatory practice against Henan people in the commentary sections of two major Chinese news portals – Tencent and NetEase. By advancing an affective critical discourse analysis approach with the assistance of content analysis, I analysed user comments on news reports that covered a news event relating to regional discrimination against Henan people. The analysis showed that Internet users’ discriminatory practice was notably amplified by the locative IP-address function in NetEase’s commentary section. The research findings shed light on the interplay between Internet users’ discursive practice and the technological architecture of interactive digital platforms in the context of regional discrimination.

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“…It is evidence that CCP's constructed "vaccine nationalism" plays a significant role in stabilizing the internal political environment. China's Internet is full of nationalism, showing intensified support for the CCP and distrust of the Western system [78,84,51]. Chinese bottom-up nationalist expression reveals the feature of confidence [84].…”

Section: Chinese Government-led Vaccine Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s “Weaponized” Vaccine: Intertwining Between International and Domestic Politics

Zhang

Jamali

2022

East Asia

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Ever since China has formally joined the WHO-backed global COVID-19 vaccine initiative known as COVAX, there is a presumed notion that China's vaccine diplomacy will make a significant contribution to the international public good and thus uplift Beijing's role as the rule-maker of international order. To scrutinize this, the paper asks if China succeeded in proliferating its weaponized vaccine policy to obtain maximum diplomatic gains and soft power projection to intensify its international image, geopolitical power, and domestic politico legitimacy. The authors argue that despite its vaccine diplomacy demonstrated the robust governance capacity and responsibility to be a great power. Yet, Beijing's geopolitical influence and international image are significantly overrated and not enough to play a more prominent role in the global power fulcrum/equilibrium. On the contrary, China enjoys a leading position on the domestic political front. Its successful portrayal of China's vaccine provision in the global market and remarkable configuration to leverage a deep-rooted nationalism has fundamentally provided China with a powerful rationale to divert its public's attention from Beijing's earlier inadequate handling of the outbreak. The evaluation of the paper reveals that China's vaccine diplomacy's influence in promoting international image and geopolitics is limited but has successfully stabilized its domestic political environment and enhanced its domestic legitimacy.

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Boris Johnson in hospital: a Chinese gaze at Western democracies in the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 14 publications

References 36 publications

Traditional Chinese medicine works: a politicised scientific debate in the COVID-19 pandemic

Traditional Chinese medicine works: a politicised scientific debate in the COVID-19 pandemic

Amplification of regional discrimination on Chinese news portals: An affective critical discourse analysis

China’s “Weaponized” Vaccine: Intertwining Between International and Domestic Politics

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