Table 4.

A set of online news articles that may have contributed to global news sentiment regarding China during the period of study

Article #	News text
1	The World Health Organization is facing a mounting backlash over its handling of China’s cover-up of the novel coronavirus. WHO leaders, including Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have run interference for China’s propaganda war meant to absolve the communist nation of responsibility for the global spread of COVID-19. The WHO is now under increasing pressure from experts and Republican senators. “A reevaluation of World Health Organization (WHO) leadership is urgently called for”
2	“When you have intentional, cold-blooded, premeditated action as you have with China, this would be considered first-degree murder.” Executives at large U.S. companies such as 3M and Honeywell reported to authorities that China was disallowing exports of face masks, shields, and gloves
3	All-around cooperation between China, Japan, and South Korea is essential in view of a new trend of regionalization and localization of supply chains emerging in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure such cooperation, the three countries should push for new mechanisms of cooperation in the manufacturing sector
4	President Donald Trump has threatened to put a “very powerful” hold on US funding to the World Health Organization, accusing the UN agency of being “very China centric” and criticising it for having “missed the call” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump slammed the global health agency for its early guidance aimed at countering the international spread of the coronavirus
5	Among those who have spoken out against the Chinese government’s role in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, are the US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and French Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier, the co-discoverer of HIV. It came from the scientific labs in Wuhan – that host China’s only and the highest rated Level 4 microbiology lab—and not from the Chinese ’wet’ animal markets, claim those in the know. Given China’s public relations drive, countries that are either financially weak or dependent on Chinese handouts, are not willing to speak up, choosing to play safe
6	Missouri’s lawsuit was immediately praised by supporters of the president and many Republican congressional counterparts Tuesday: “Huge news. Given the lies and disinformation from China throughout this process a very appropriate move. Therefore, many lives and jobs lost that could have been avoided!” tweeted Donald Trump Jr., praising the legal action Tuesday. Republican lawmakers made Missouri the first state to file a lawsuit against the Chinese government over the country’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic
7	The Wuhan-originated novel coronavirus that globally killed around 180,000 people so far have mutated into at least 30 different genetic variations, according to a new study in China. The study conducted by professor Li Lanjuan and others from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou was published in a non-peer-reviewed paper released on Sunday
8	A 103-year-old Chinese grandmother has made a full recovery from COVID-19 after being treated for 6 days in Wuhan, China
9	While China shut down the last of its several makeshift hospitals in Wuhan following a decline in domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases, its recent attempt to ease lockdown restrictions resulted in thousands of people crowding one of its popular tourist spots in the country, throwing social distancing caution to the winds
10	In the battle against the novel coronavirus outbreak, many of the country’s top epidemiologists and physicians, who are also members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, worked in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the city hardest hit by the epidemic in China. On the front line of the battle, along with 40,000 medical workers from all over China, they helped the city gradually return to normal
11	Cars queued up at expressway toll gates and passengers prepared to board trains and planes to leave Wuhan, Hubei province at midnight. The city, the hardest-hit area by the COVID-19 outbreak on the Chinese mainland, reopened on Wednesday after a 76-day lockdown