Breakdown of US-China interactions as the two countries engage in a battle of narratives on the Twitter platform.

From Mike Pompeo’s adamant claim that the coronavirus had originated from a laboratory in Wuhan to the recent short video posted by the official Chinese media, Xinhua News Agency, a battle of narratives had consequently broken out over Twitter where the two ‘countries’ lobbied nuanced remarks at each other as the Chinese response to previous accusations such as that China was to blame for the coronavirus outbreak.

Whilst it was clarified that there was nothing to make Pompeo’s allegations a legitimate theory yet, information published by Fox News US suggested that 70-75% of the 17 US intelligence agencies believe that the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Perhaps unsurprisingly, media misinformation and fake news circulation has greatly increased during this period of virus outbreak. In a poll published by the Open Knowledge Foundation in the UK, 51% of voters said that they have seen fake news about the virus. The lack of transparency in data information has resulted in significant increases in speculations over the virus origins and more often than not, these speculations have seen to surface and proliferate in their mutative forms across various social media platforms.

From government-endorsed social media campaigns to bottom-up citizen-generated initiatives, creative content like the video published by the Chinese media remind us of the dominating role of social media in our lives. Its significance is greatly demonstrated when waging an online battle of narratives.

Released on Twitter 30th April, the video received more than 30,000 likes and a total of 1.5 million views in just 3 days. The 1.5-minute long animation depicted a dialogue between two Lego figurines, a terracotta-shaped figurine to represent China and a Statue of Liberty for the US, remarking on China’s involvement in the global pandemic. Highlights of the video include claims from ‘China’ that they have been continuously releasing virus information to the world and repeatedly warned the world of its severity since the initial outbreak. On the contrary, ‘the US’ has repeatedly denied the credibility of the Chinese sources, ignored warnings from China, and blames China for the virus outbreak. The video concludes with ‘China’s’ satirical remark at the known tendency for ‘the US’ to insist on its own opinions, refuse to listen to advice, and a long-term habit of blaming others: ‘this is what I love best about you Americans - your consistency.’

As a small segment of guilty pleasure, the short video published by the official Chinese media, Xinhua News Agency, fits the criteria for the job. But for the International community, the allegations which the video touches upon spark wider debate over China’s involvement in the coronavirus pandemic and also critique the US handling of the public health crisis. As the number of cases and deaths in the US due to COVID-19 continue to climb and surpass the 60,000 mark, the relevance of this prep-school ‘who’s laughing now’ mentality as demonstrated by the animation is minimal. Due to its informal deliverance and use of immature language as well as drawing on predisposed stereotypes, the video should only be received as a ‘good laugh.’ The result of this ongoing ‘battle of narratives’ remains inconclusive.