China’s propagandists preach defiance in the trade war with America

Even before getting embroiled in a trade war with America, China’s officials were struggling to keep up public morale. Many people were already fretting about a weak job market and a property downturn. Now, American levies on most Chinese goods have reached a staggering 145% and China’s levies on American imports are at 125%.

On April 14th China’s customs bureau tried to reassure, saying that “the sky won’t fall” because of tariffs. But officials are worried about consumer sentiment and, in the long run, social stability. So they are trying to convince the public that China’s defiant approach to America is the right one, and the pain will be bearable. “Believe in China. Believe in tomorrow,” gushed an editorial on April 11th on the front page of the People’s Daily, a Communist Party mouthpiece. China is an “oasis of certainty” in a chaotic world, it argued, alongside a list of technological achievements, from ai to space travel. In America, meanwhile, there has been a shortage of eggs, state-run media reported.

Propagandists are also digging into China’s revolutionary past for inspiration. On social media officials shared a grainy video of Mao Zedong speaking in 1953, during the Korean war, when China’s armed forces fought America’s. In it Mao proclaims that “No matter how long this war is going to last, we’ll never yield. We’ll fight until we completely triumph.” State-run media are also quoting another fiery saying of Mao: “America is just a paper tiger. Don’t believe its bluff.”

China keeps tight control on public opinion surveys. But many Chinese do seem to support fighting a trade war. “We must let everyone know that we have a strong backbone and will never bow down,” proclaimed Zijin Gongzi, a blogger with 430,000 followers on Weibo, a social-media platform. Wuheqilin, a digital artist with 3.5m followers, created an iconic image (pictured), widely shared online, of a figure in red, representing China, standing defiantly before a grotesque Mr Trump, with the title “I am standing here!”

Some are trolling Mr Trump for wanting to bring manufacturing jobs back to America. They share ai-generated videos of overweight American workers clumsily trying to make iPhones. One video features Mr Trump himself in a factory, getting slapped by his supervisor.

Many Chinese people are worried as well, though. Users of Douyin, a video-sharing platform, are asking which goods Chinese people should start hoarding. Others look for tips about buying gold, perceived to be a haven for investors in times of turmoil. They are anxious, as well as defiant. ■

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