Chinese publicity ‘trying to shape the debate’ surrounding coronavirus

The Australian Financial Review’s Andrew Tillett says China’s Ambassador Cheng Jingye likely wanted to sit down with Australian authorities to dispel suspicion about China’s role in the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Tillett told Sky News Australia should not be surprised at a “potential boycott” from the Chinese as China was facing much criticism around the world over the handling of the virus, with Australia prepared to launch an independent inquiry into the matter. Mr Jingye spoke with government officials on Sunday. He said Chinese embassies “have been very forthright in terms of publicising on twitter and things like that, which is banned in china of course, but publicising the assistance that China has offered to countries that are suffering through the pandemic”. “I think you can see that there is a lot of sensitivity with China that they’re wanting to sort of get their side of the narrative out there,” he said. “They are sort of very much more aware of getting their message out in western media and trying to shape the debate.” Image: News Corp Australia

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