Category: Social Media
In the Diplomatic Optics Game, China Shows That it Can Get Things Done to Help Fortify Africa Against COVID-19
Now that the COVID-19 crisis in China is receding, Chinese officials are stepping up their efforts to help other countries in their fight against the deadly virus. Although in many instances the amount of aid, measured in dollars, is far less than what the United States and ...
Chinese Twitter Accounts Aim to Sow Doubt About COVID-19 Origins
One of the hallmarks of the Chinese campaign against the notion that COVID-19 originated from one of Wuhan's live animal food markets is to promote the idea that scientists are investigating the virus' origins. They don't provide any proof or other documentation to ...
Chinese Social Media Accounts in Africa Weigh in on the Escalating Dispute Over COVID-19’s Origins
China's outspoken Ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, is emerging as one of Beijing's leading spokespeople to rebut the well-documented assertion that the COVID-19 outbreak originated at an outdoor food market, known commonly as "wet markets," in Wuhan. The conflict has ...
China’s Ambassador to South Africa Really Seems Like He’s Trolling the United States Government
China's outspoken ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, tweeted an offer for assistance to the United States in their fight against COVID-19, a gesture many in Washington probably view as disingenuous. Ambassador Lin has emerged as one of the most ...
Egyptian Tourism Authorities Scramble to do Damage Control Following Viral Video of Chinese Tourist Abandoned by Taxi Drivers Shouting “Corona Corona!”
Egyptian tourism authorities are hoping that some flowers and a sincere apology to a Chinese tourist will make up for him being kicked out of a taxi and humiliated by drivers shouting "corona corona!" on Wednesday. The incident took place on ...
Racially Charged Conspiracy Theories About Why COVID-19 is Rarer in Africa Circulate Widely on African Twitter
While COVID-19 is now rapidly spreading in Europe and the United States, Africa, as far as we know, has so far largely been spared. This has prompted a heated discussion online about why the continent has seen so few infections. While ...
Chinese Ambassadors in Africa Amplify Beijing’s New Line That COVID-19 Isn’t “Made in China”
Chinese diplomats in Africa are really stepping up their efforts to try and persuade everyone that COVID-19 did not originate in China. Last week Ambassador Wu Peng in Kenya used this line and now Lin Songtian in South Africa appears to be ...
Chinese Officials Are Now Trying to Reshape the COVID-19 Narrative: “Coronavirus is Not a China Virus”
Now that the COVID-19 infection rate in China is steadily declining and the government appears to be gaining some measure of control over the outbreak, officials in Beijing are now turning their attention to getting the domestic economy going again and to re-shaping ...
The #WuhanShake Makes it to Africa
The "Wuhan Shake" that's been trending on Twitter for the past few days has made its way from China all the way to the State House in Tanzania. After talks with National Convention for Construction and Reform leader Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, rather than the customary handshake or embrace ...
This Week’s Viral Video of Two Chinese People Being Harassed in Kenya Sparks an Unusual Response on Twitter: Sympathy
A longer 30-second version of the viral video of two Chinese nationals being verbally accosted by a group of Kenyan men shouting "you're corona!" started to circulate on Twitter yesterday and provoked an unexpected response from Kenyan social media users... kindness and sympathy.
Kenya Airways Suspends Employee Who Shot Phone Video of Last Week’s China Southern Arrival in Nairobi
Kenya Airways, which runs the ground staff at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on behalf of the Kenya Airports Authority, announced on Sunday that it is suspending one of its employees, Gire Ali, who shot and posted a phone video of last Wednesday's arrival of the China Southern flight from ...
Video of University of Nairobi Lecturer Highlights Growing Kenyan Anxiety About Chinese Presence in the Country
A video of University of Nairobi lecturer Dr. Richard Bosire sounding exasperated over being locked out of classrooms in UoN Towers. He thought this was because the Chinese government-run Confucius Institute had purchased two floors of the building.







