This article argues that the disruption of the coronavirus was a critical opportunity among states to draw compelling narratives and consequently negotiate their power status and level of influence based on their management of the outbreak. This argument will be explored through the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the height of the pandemic. The article investigates the evolution of the CCP’s information warfare as an asymmetric capability from its early days of technological inferiority towards its ascendancy to great power status. It highlights the breakthrough of Chinese app TikTok in the US-dominated social media landscape and its potential impact in expanding China’s strategic narrative. Using the proposed analytical tools—assets, tactics, and narratives—this article examines the whole of CCP approach aimed to shape the narrative in China’s favor following the global outcry from its lack of transparency during the early stages of the pandemic set against the backdrop of its deepening strategic rivalry with the US. It concludes that the CCP will continue to capitalize on information warfare to promote the superiority of the Chinese model amid the eruption of unexpected global crises while depicting the decline of the Western-centric order.
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