China’s Political Discourse: January 2021: A Wartime State

By The China Media Project

The China Media Project (CMP) is a terrific resource for understanding PRC politics and how they are reflected in trends in CCP propaganda. Every month the CMP produces a report looking at leading trends in Chinese official discourse, and I am pleased to be able to publish these reports on Sinocism.

A difficult 2020 has now passed, but it is difficult to say that 2021 promises a smooth road ahead. In January 2021, Covid-19 spread in a number of areas in China, and a number of local governments declared that they were in what they called a “wartime state,” or zhanshi zhuangtai (战时状态). In Henan, a public opinion storm was kicked up as the Party Secretary of one city slapped the local government’s secretary-general and the incident was reported by the secretary-general’s wife. As the Biden administration took office, a spate of articles appeared in the People’s Daily criticizing the Trump administration – resulting in a jump from cold to warm on the CMP discourse scale. 

The Hot and the C…