Vaccine Nationalism: How China's State Media Misinform about Western Vaccines and Highlight the Successes of Chinese Vaccines to Different Audiences

Abstract

Abstract What motivates state-sponsored vaccine misinformation campaigns, given clear scientific evidence of vaccines' efficacy? The authors explored this issue through the lens of state-owned presses in mainland China and in Hong Kong. They first collected an original database of media reports on both Western and Chinese vaccines from 16 Chinese-language media publications based in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. They found the quantity of coverage of Western vaccines by mainland state-owned media outlets to be much less than their coverage of Chinese vaccines, reflecting the unavailability of Western vaccines in mainland China. However, applying a dictionary-based sentiment analysis, the authors found that state-owned presses in mainland China still portrayed Western vaccines negatively. In Hong Kong, where there is direct competition between Chinese and Western vaccines, they found that state-owned presses gave high coverage of both Western and Chinese vaccines but greater negative coverage of Western vaccines. These findings are consistent with a Chinese producer–oriented “vaccine nationalism” policy designed to nurture the domestic biotechnology sector.