Why have so few Japanese media organizations directly examined China’s responsibility for the global spread of COVID-19?
Through a dialogue between Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka, this article examines the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to shift responsibility, its propaganda concerning Tibet and the Uyghurs, its ambitions toward the Senkaku Islands, and the willingness of Japanese and American media organizations to repeat narratives favorable to Beijing.

August 5, 2020
The Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda War and the Japanese Media Under Its Influence—Questioning Responsibility for COVID-19, “Anti-Japan Apologists,” and Fabricated Reporting
【Background】
In 2020, COVID-19 spread throughout the world, causing severe loss of life and enormous economic damage in many countries.
Nevertheless, it seemed to me that Japan’s major media organizations were failing to conduct a sufficiently rigorous examination of the Chinese Communist Party regime’s initial response, suppression of information, and responsibility to the international community.
To deflect criticism directed at China, the Chinese government repeatedly attempted to suggest that the virus had originated in the United States, Japan, Italy, or elsewhere.
At the same time, Beijing promoted images of happy and prosperous ethnic minorities in an attempt to divert international attention from repression in Tibet and Xinjiang.
The following is taken from a dialogue between Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka published in the June 2020 issue of the monthly magazine WiLL.
Just as few Japanese media organizations were willing to question China’s responsibility for the COVID-19 crisis, a considerable number of people in Japan appeared to have been infected by what the dialogue metaphorically called the “China virus.”
In this context, the term referred to the uncritical acceptance of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, historical narratives, and information operations.
To avoid being misled, people must examine not only what China says, but also what it conceals and upon whom it attempts to place responsibility.
【The Growing Number of Anti-Japan Apologists】
Takayama:
I read your new book, Japan’s Defamers—The True Identity of “Anti-Japan Apologists and Fabricating Media,” published by Wac.
It was fascinating.
Otaka:
Thank you.
There seem to be many “anti-Japan apologists” in Japan who swallow the propaganda campaigns of China and the Korean Peninsula whole and obediently wag their tails.
Takayama:
The leading examples would be Uichiro Niwa and Yukio Hatoyama, I suppose.
Otaka:
China is desperately conducting propaganda campaigns to erase the stigma of having spread COVID-19 throughout the world.
It also celebrated what it called the sixty-first anniversary of the liberation of one million Tibetan serfs.
A Tibetan person was quoted as saying:
“After enduring the hardships of old Tibet, our present life is wonderful, almost like a dream.
In 2019, the dividend bonus my family received from the village collective economy exceeded 100,000 yuan.”
That appeared in the Japanese edition of the People’s Daily on March 28, 2020.
Takayama:
Your book also introduced propaganda that used Uyghur children.
Photographs showed children taking skiing lessons, as though they were innocently enjoying themselves in the snow.
These were merely political propaganda intended to divert attention from the reality of persecution.
Otaka:
China also reported that it was working with its global partners to build a “Health Silk Road” and a community dedicated to protecting public health.
It said this even though the Belt and Road Initiative had effectively become a “coronavirus route.”
That report appeared in the Japanese edition of China Internet Information Center on March 30, 2020.
It was almost a touching effort.
China conducts propaganda so crude that people around the world can only smile bitterly, and it does so without the slightest embarrassment.
Yet some Japanese people will still innocently believe such Chinese propaganda.
【The Senkaku Islands and China’s Falsehoods】
Takayama:
China is a genius at lying.
When the possibility of petroleum resources around the Senkaku Islands became known, China began watching them covetously.
Zhou Enlai evaded the sovereignty issue by saying:
“Now is not the time to discuss it.”
He refused to provide a clear answer.
Deng Xiaoping later said:
“Let us leave the Senkaku issue to future generations.”
In this way, China gradually transformed territory that belongs to Japan into what it portrayed as a bilateral dispute.
That is not the conduct of a responsible statesman.
It is the method of a swindler.
Otaka:
Even during the COVID-19 crisis, the number of Chinese government vessels entering the surrounding waters continued to increase.
Takayama:
China tells such lies without hesitation.
There is an interesting story associated with the Chinese writer and journalist Lin Yutang.
What do Chinese people do all day?
In the morning, they practice tai chi, then play Go and enjoy calligraphy, and in the afternoon they criticize the Japanese.
“Anti-Japanese sentiment” is treated as a kind of hobby.
Otaka:
For Koreans who regard themselves as a “Little China,” anti-Japanese sentiment is almost like a vitamin supplement.
Takayama:
It is the traditional Sino-centric order.
South Korea takes China’s false propaganda, adapts it to a smaller scale, and then publicizes it.
【Media That Obscure China’s Responsibility】
Otaka:
A crisis can also be an opportunity.
The Wuhan coronavirus crisis offers the world an opportunity to discover the extent of China’s falsehoods.
Takayama:
Exactly.
When President Trump used the expression “China virus,” China showed no concern and instead claimed that the United States had brought the virus into China.
Amid those exchanges, The New York Times argued that China and the United States should stop fighting and combine their wisdom to contain the coronavirus.
It sounded like something a certain Japanese newspaper would write.
Otaka:
You mean the Asahi Shimbun, which wrote that instead of excluding Chinese people, everyone should wash their hands together.
Takayama:
The person who publicly suggested that the United States had brought the virus into China was Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.
Trump responded by using the term “China virus.”
His words expressed anger at China’s apparent lack of any sense of responsibility toward the international community.
The New York Times, however, placed the United States and China on the same level and urged them to stop quarrelling.
In doing so, it sought to bring down Trump while presenting China as a responsible state.
That was an extremely sophisticated piece of disinformation.
Otaka:
It demonstrates that Chinese influence operations have penetrated the major American media.
The situation in Japan is even more depressing to imagine.
【Magnifying Small Facts Until the Whole Picture Disappears】
Takayama:
They take a small fact and enlarge it until it appears to be a great truth.
It is stretched so far that the overall picture becomes blurred.
Otaka:
Hillary Clinton also sided with Beijing by describing President Trump’s use of the term “China virus” as racism.
One wonders how much Chinese money had entered the Clinton Foundation.
Takayama:
The origin of the outbreak was clear, so this was not merely a question of racism.
Otaka:
China suggested that the source was the United States.
For a time, it also used ambiguous language implying that the virus might have come from Japan, while carefully leaving itself an escape route.
It later suggested Italy.
Whenever an opportunity appears, China attempts to shift responsibility and place the blame on someone else.
To be continued.
【Conclusion】
The problem is not simply that China conducts propaganda.
Every government communicates information intended to advance its own national interests.
The truly serious problem is that media organizations, politicians, and intellectuals in Japan and the United States repeat the Chinese Communist Party’s claims without examining them.
Examining the initial spread of the virus, the conduct of the Chinese authorities, delays in releasing information, and Beijing’s influence over international organizations is not the same as discriminating against Chinese individuals.
When responsibility on the part of a state or political regime is deliberately confused with hostility toward an ethnic group, legitimate investigation itself can be suppressed.
We must examine not only what the Chinese Communist Party says, but also what it conceals, how it transfers responsibility, and who spreads its narratives outside China.
Maintaining an understanding of facts and history that is not distorted by propaganda is the minimum requirement for protecting a free society in an age of information warfare.