China promotes its ‘heroic’ battle against coronavirus in new exhibition
- Exhibition that opened in Beijing at the start of the months draws on Maoist motifs to hail country’s efforts to contain Covid-19
- Official media has relentlessly pushed a positive narrative over the disease
Chinese workers raise their fists beside a red communist flag in a painting displayed at a Beijing museum, one of nearly 200 works put together for a propaganda exhibition that hails, not the Maoist past, but the “heroic deeds” of frontline medics fighting the coronavirus.
Since the discovery of the deadly contagion in Wuhan at the end of last year, the Chinese Communist Party has sought to model itself as the vanguard in the fight against Covid-19.
Outside China, Beijing has been the target of Western criticism over accusations that it covered up the initial outbreak, silencing early whistle-blowers – including the doctor Li Wenliang, who alerted colleagues to the virus in late December but was reprimanded by local authorities.
But inside the country, the party propaganda machine has relentlessly pushed a positive narrative.
China officially recorded around 85,000 cases and just over 4,600 deaths – a fraction of the world’s total – and has now largely brought its domestic virus spread under control.
The National Museum of China’s “Unity of Strength” exhibition showcases paintings, sculptures and calligraphy, all faithful to the socialist realism style, that depict what the government says is its success in responding to the crisis.