A wind of contestation is blowing in China, fueled by the coronavirus epidemic which affects the country and in particular the regions of Wuhan and Hubei. For François Godement, Asia advisor at the Montaigne Institute and specialist in China, if the regime currently masters its communication, it must deal with criticism and its difficulties in curbing the epidemic.
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A growing dispute on social networks
"The spark was the death of a doctor from Wuhan who was among the very first to reveal the existence of an epidemic and to be arrested by the police for this, before dying from this virus", explains François Godement. "It started a storm on social media, hundreds of millions or even a billion clicks on its name. Very clearly, a form of Chinese public opinion manifested itself on this occasion."
But these social networks, the government needs for its crisis communication, also explains the specialist. Indeed, "the regime must navigate between measures necessary to curb the epidemic, and for that it is necessary to inform people, and they must remain on social media since they are isolated, and the need to contain Too much criticism of the regime. "
"One of the rare cases where a system of control and surveillance of individuals is probably useful"
The scale of the pandemic prompted leader Xi Jinping to adapt his communication, as François Godement points out. The leader "made an appearance in the suburbs of Beijing, borrows modesty and listening, wearing a mask and being taken his temperature, it is a big change compared to the usual propaganda", analyzes the researcher. "He acknowledged that the alert and response systems for epidemic crises were not perfect and needed to be improved, which is a form of self-criticism of the system."
At the same time, "there are his martial declarations, his declarations of war on the epidemic, and extremely firm measures that are taken to contain the epidemic and isolate people from each other," adds François Godement. According to the guest from Europe 1, "this is one of the rare cases where a system of monitoring and surveillance of individuals is probably useful. It is internationally recognized that these isolation measures are necessary. adopting them in Hubei has helped transform the epidemic into a pandemic. "
Xi Jinping also dismissed the leaders of the Hubei region. "They may not be solely responsible, but it is certain that the delay in recognizing human-to-human transmission, and the fact that they held a banquet of 40,000 people in central Wuhan on 18 January, which increased the risk of contagion, designated them for what I will call the first purge ".
"Government measures significantly inhibit the economy"
For François Godement, it is necessary to qualify the reproaches made against the Chinese government. "The fight against the epidemic is not an easy thing when we speak of populations of tens or hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. The shortages of equipment are not unique to China. The unknowns that remain about its dissemination on its mortality and on the signs of detection, all that is not to be attributed to Chinese power. "
What then risks the Chinese government? "Chinese power would be threatened if this pandemic were to last, because its measures considerably inhibit the economy," replied François Godement. "Having said that, I do not think he is currently threatened in the measures he is taking to curb the epidemic. On the contrary, they are helping to make up for the discredit that has been attached to the previous weeks," he concluded.