In late 2020, CDT acquired and verified a collection of propaganda directives issued by central Party authorities to state media at the beginning of that year. These directives were issued on an almost daily basis in early 2020 through the early weeks of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic, and shed light on the propaganda machinery’s efforts to grapple with the outbreak. They were originally published between September and December, 2020 as the Minitrue Diary series, after the censorship and propaganda organs’ Orwellian online nickname 真理部 Zhēnlǐ bù, or "Ministry of Truth." Now, to mark the passage of five years since the outbreak, we are republishing each set of directives on the fifth anniversary of the day they were issued. The following directives were released on February 11, 2020.
In the spirit of the National Health Commission’s “Notice on Tentative Terminologies Related to Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia” from February 8, news reports may refer to “pneumonia from novel coronavirus infections” as “novel coronavirus pneumonia” or “NCP”—in English, “novel coronavirus pneumonia” or “NCP” for short. (February 11, 2020) [Chinese]
This report is inaccurate, please withdraw it: “Paper lead-authored by Zhong Nanshan: Incubation period can be as long as 24 days; superspreaders are possible.” (February 11, 2020) [Chinese]
There should not be too many flags, banners, or symbols onscreen during news reports. (February 11, 2020) [Chinese]
These directives continued a stream of orders banning or limiting coverage of certain aspects of the spread of the novel coronavirus in China. Well-known epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan was the first to publicly confirm that the virus could be transmitted from person to person in late January. It was later accepted by the scientific community that "superspreaders" were indeed responsible for much of the COVID-19 transmission globally.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. Some instructions are issued by local authorities or to specific sectors, and may not apply universally across China. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. See CDT’s collection of Directives from the Ministry of Truth since 2011.
