Social Media, Populism, and COVID-19: Weibo Users’ Reactions to Anti-Chinese Discourse

Theresa Catalano,Peiwen Wang

doi:10.11114/smc.v9i2.5388

Abstract

US government communication about the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the ‘Chinese virus’ discourse adopted by Donald Trump and his administration, has led to real-world violence and triggered heated discussions across social media sites, including Sina Weibo (aka Chinese Twitter). The current study explores the relationship between populism and social media by examining how Sina Weibo users respond to Trump’s communication on the virus. Employing multimodal critical discourse analysis, we examine both visual and verbal strategies used to build counter-discourses that challenge the use of terms such as ‘Chinese virus’. Findings demonstrate the potential of Weibo as a platform of resistance and site where users contest social injustice and racism, but also as a dangerous space in which populist discourses can yield more populist discourses which influence public sentiment and potentially government policies and international relations.

Highlights

1.1 Sino-US Relations and COVID-19In recent years, Sino-US relations have gradually shifted from "neither friends nor enemies" to "competitors" since Trump became president in 2017 (Ai, 2020, p.8)
The Trump administration’s populist politics and communication regarding COVID-19 has led to real-world violence against Asian American/Pacific Islander communities in the US (Tessler et al, 2020) as well as heated discussions and debates across various social media sites, including Sina Weibo, which has more than 5,000 million active users as of April 2020
Many scholars have studied the global rise in populism including its causes and functions (e.g., Laclau, 2005; Mudde, 2004; Mouffe, 2018; Wodak, 2021), its symbiotic relationship to social media (e.g., Gerbaudo, 2018; Hopster, 2021), as well as the rise of Sinophobic discourses post COVID-19 on social media (e.g., Ziems et al, 2020)

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Sino-US Relations and COVID-19In recent years, Sino-US relations have gradually shifted from "neither friends nor enemies" to "competitors" since Trump became president in 2017 (Ai, 2020, p.8). The Trump administration’s populist politics and communication regarding COVID-19 has led to real-world violence against Asian American/Pacific Islander communities in the US (Tessler et al, 2020) as well as heated discussions and debates across various social media sites, including Sina Weibo (aka Chinese Twitter), which has more than 5,000 million active users as of April 2020. Laclau (2005) and Mouffe (2018) argue that populism is a way of thinking and talking about the world that is neither right nor left wing. As Hopster notes, In its typical right-wing variety, the in-group is delineated in terms of national identity, and pitted against immigrants, or ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. In its typical left-wing variety, the in-group is defined in terms of class and pitted against the economic establishment, the privileged ethnic class, or the ‘one percent’ (2021, p.555)

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