Thread by @SandorReport

(If you don't care about geopolitics, kindly scroll through.)
Living in Taiwan, I am obviously watching #China with great interest. And what I see is an unmitigated PR disaster that will have an enormous impact on the country even short term, more so long term. 1/n

If you are not familiar with Chinese culture, the most important thing you should know is "face". It doesn't matter how bad the situation is internally, the only thing you can't afford to lose is your "face". Appearing weak, being criticized, God forbid being laughed at. 2/n

Combine this with the extreme inertia of a Communist regime and you get the worst possible mix. A country that can't face its failures internally AND externally, and can't correct its course. #China, now as we speak, is digging herself into a very deep hole. 3/n

Basically every action the #CCP took so far made the situation worse. Riding "the virus is American" conspiracy, trying to bribe journalists and lawmakers to praise China, evicting African legal residents in #Guangzhou, bullying #Taiwan, unleashing their Twitter troll army... 4/n

... buying up all the PPE in the world at the start and sending defective / fake masks when others needed it, etc etc, the list is immense. Every single step is making the situation worse for #China and turning this into an unmitigated PR disaster. 5/n

These are all from a "how to completely f*ck up crisis comms" handbook. They don't understand, they *can't* understand, because they can't read the label of the face-obsessed+Communist jar they are in. Literally no one trusts #China now, not even countries who adored the... 6/n

... Chinese model before (notably in Africa). This will result in companies pulling their supply chain from China, foreigners contributing to the Chinese economy leaving China, and Chinese companies like Huawei banned from most developed countries. 7/n

Of course, the Chinese, as they always do, will scream racism and bloody murder. And with every tone-deaf and frankly dumb tweet from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese ambassadors, and the wumao army, the hole is deeper and deeper. 8/n

This is dangerous, because in China many people eat up the propaganda. It boosts nationalism to the extreme, we vs. the world. But the truth is, #China did this all to herself. Maybe it's not too late. Random fact: the revolution that took down the empire started in #Wuhan. 9/n