When most people think about a country’s public relations, they think of pictures, social media campaigns for its president, positive images of the country’s work, etc. But recently, the trade war between China and the USA has gone viral on social media. Most Asian countries’ netizens support China and think it is brave to oppose the USA.
Here is one of the comments from a Taiwan netizen, translated to English: “Let’s go, China; don’t be soft to them!”
The article I found from the Washington Post, “ Amid Trump’s trade war, China launches a PR blitz ( and it might win),” is also a classical detail about how China’s thoughtful response to the US for the new tariffs.
The article says China did not directly respond to the US about Trump’s new tariff policy. Instead, they are making responses on Western social media sites like Facebook and X. Even though those social media sites are banned in China. The Chinese diplomats posted memes and historical film clips from China to deliver the message, “Bring it, we are not scared, and we are not the China from 100 years ago”. The video includes the speech made by Mao Zedong, the Korean War, and the war with Japan. The posts also include AI-generated videos making fun of the Americans working in the factory.
Here are some examples:
In China, official diplomacy and news TikTok accounts are not posting memes; they still use traditional ways, such as a simple color background with letters, just like a message post. Or it is the clip from the diplomats’ speech. So, for official accounts related to the government, most of the content they post will be more professional and polite. Then, some other entertainment account will take the clips from that professional account, make new content, or repost.
But those are typical Chinese-style public relations strategies; instead of directly delivering messages, they know how to use trends to respond to more people’s attention. They know that only spreading inside of China is not enough, so they make accounts on Western social media and let the whole world know their attitude.
The original news article link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/amid-trump-s-trade-war-china-launches-a-pr-blitz-and-it-might-win/ar-AA1D5GsX?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds
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