As George Orwell wrote in 1984, the keyword is: black is white. It’s not China which gifted the deadly novel coronavirus to the world. It’s China that has emerged as the heroic world leader in stopping the pandemic in its tracks and has bought the planet precious time to get ready to fight the virus. Chinese television is showing an endless loop of Chinese doctors and medical supplies being rushed to virus ravaged Italy and Iran, and receiving warm thanks from countries around the world. Welcome to the latest edition of Chinese propaganda blitz to claim the leadership role abandoned by “America First” president Donald Trump.

A believer in the strategy ‘offence is the best defence’, China has employed its formidable propaganda machinery to rewrite history as it happens. Well established facts like the emergence of the coronavirus in Wuhan’s wet market or its claiming the first known casualty on November 17 last year – full 44 days before China informed WHO about an unidentified virus – have been erased. In the heroic recounting of China’s fight against the “devil” (that’s how Chinese leader Xi Jinping described the virus) it all began on January 23 when the leader took the draconian action of quarantining the entire Wuhan city of 11 million. No mention is made of the lost precious weeks when the government silenced whistleblowers, hid news of the outbreak allowing tens of thousands of Wuhan residents, many of them infected, to stream out to other parts of the country and to foreign destinations. The result of that lethal deception came days later in the explosion of the pandemic across the globe. There’s no excuse for the callousness displayed by the US and other procrastinating governments in allowing the pandemic to spread. But it’s rich for China to claim leadership in fighting the disease. Only weeks earlier it condemned countries for blocking visitors from China as racist.

While China clearly wants to deflect focus from its responsibility by its propaganda campaign the objective is not just defensive. It’s an attempt to turn adversity into opportunity. In an unusual move for a foreign ministry official, a senior Chinese spokesman has advanced a conspiracy theory accusing the US of being responsible for releasing the deadly virus. Even the Beijing-friendly WHO which has lavished praise on China for its bold measures and “transparency” has called such assertions dangerous. But that has not dampened China’s push towards an alternative narrative.

With China seemingly recovering from the pandemic it wants to cast itself as a responsible world leader eager to help humanity. It helps to prepare the ground for its role in the devastated post-corona world. As China had stepped forward in 2008 to take advantage of the economic devastation wrought by the Great Recession, it hopes its apparent success in curbing the corona threat will open up new opportunities to push its agenda of domination. As a country now accounting for 16% of world GDP it’s in a position to transform its pandemic fighting success into a leadership role claiming superiority for its authoritarian system.

While boasting about its success China is also using all its international tools to block scrutiny and create goodwill. President Xi has taken unusual steps like calling leaders of France, Germany, Italy and even the Spanish king to offer help. While Italian leaders – Italy’s the only EU country to have signed up with the Belt and Road Initiative – have expressed gratitude, complaints have come from Italy and Turkey about defective Chinese medical supplies. Meanwhile China as the current rotating chair of the Security Council has blocked attempts to hold a council meeting to discuss the corona issue because apparently this public health issue didn’t fall in the ambit of geopolitics. Such a meeting would have brought world spotlight on Chinese responsibility for the pandemic. But as China is the heroic defender of world health why bother? George Orwell lives.