Details of Research Outputs

China managed to contain the new coronavirus spread within a short time at the early crisis stage (January–April 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinese society has, in the main, restored to a relatively (new) normal state of being soon after that. The rapid containment of the pandemic and quelling of the crisis phase cannot be done without full-fledged mobilization of the support and cooperation of the Chinese population with harsh measures like city lockdown, quarantine, and severe mobility restrictions. In the process of social mobilization, state-sponsored media was instrumental in establishing rapport between the Chinese state and society. Three major discursive strategies, militarism, altruism, and authoritativeness, deployed by the state-sponsored media, are identified and discussed. Nevertheless, as seen in the online tumults triggered by the authorities’ wrongful accusation of Dr. Li Wenliang, social media are emerging as a space for the bottom-up formation of public opinion and sentiment in China. The latter may have momentarily influenced the decision-making of the Chinese government. This article will hence shed light on the political potential of the Chinese social media space.