Sino-Korean War: The Public Opinion War
Faced with China's campaign of public opinion, Korea mounted a national response of its own.
The article, paired with a photograph of the long-eared elf Arianna weeping, raced across the entire world.
The comments beneath the piece overflowed with goodwill.
Arianna was the most famous singer on the planet, with a fanbase estimated at a minimum of five hundred million. Most of those fans had their brains thoroughly scrambled. Her beauty, which overwhelmed ordinary humans, and the songs she delivered in that crystalline voice carried a demonic allure that seized people by the soul. At her concerts, fans routinely collapsed from sheer overexcitement. The most astonishing fact of all was that she enjoyed phenomenal popularity even in Germany. For the record, Arianna was blonde, fair-skinned, and blue-eyed.
After the article dropped, the China-to-Korea support ratio shifted from 7:3 to 8:2. How many people in this world actually move according to morality? A literal handful.
On Earth-3, the Korean Wave possessed enormous reach precisely because it was driven by non-human races—elves, beastfolk, and the like—who casually surpassed the human average.
The beastfolk idol group LUNAPAW, commanding three hundred million fans worldwide, has officially thrown its support behind its homeland.
At their concert Promise of Moonlight, LUNAPAW declared:
"Our homeland has endured illegal occupation and oppression for long years. What we are doing now is reclaiming the lost ancestral lands and making the enemy pay the price."
Several intellectuals pointed out that LUNAPAW was dressing up their country's use of force as justice, yet fans insist the Korea-China war is a righteous one.
Under the crushing weight of that fandom, the comment sections were plastered with posts favorable to Korea. LUNAPAW's fans had zero interest in China. They had enormous interest in Korea. So who they ought to cheer for was never really a question.
Beyond these two flagship acts, countless Korean idols, singers, and actors declared their support for their homeland as a matter of personal conviction. Governments around the world watched with sour faces and simply looked the other way. As a result, people who had never cared about China began cheering for Korea instead, and before long the China-to-Korea support ratio reached 9:1.
"...Goddamn it!"
Curses erupted across China, but this was simply how humans worked. Who in their right mind would sincerely root for some distant country they had never even heard of? Without a media blitz deliberately manufacturing public opinion, such a thing was impossible. And no nation on Earth was about to side with the predetermined loser.
"The Koreans even uploaded videos of themselves shooting civilians in the cities—so why the hell is this happening?!"
Foreigners had also watched the footage of rough-faced Chinese men cursing out and shoving a cute beastfolk woman. Spitting insults and shoving an enemy soldier who was holding a gun? That was just natural causes! Plenty of people thought exactly that. In truth, at that level it really was natural causes.
For the record, the occasional tragic story also circulated of a Korean soldier who, after being ambushed by occupied-territory residents, detonated himself along with them.
"Bunch of swine!"
No matter how loudly China screamed and raged, global public opinion remained rock-solid. According to the statistics, ninety percent of humanity was cheering for Korea.
Justice meant the majority, and good meant justice. Therefore Korea was justice. China, being beaten by justice, was evil. Even after shelling cities (or rather, the fortifications on their outskirts), Korea remained justice—and would continue to remain justice so long as it did not start spraying poison gas or conducting massacres without reason. Of course Korea did carry out precision strikes on military bases and locations where resisting soldiers were present. Normally that would draw condemnation, but that was only true for humans. The great non-human nation of Korea-3 enjoyed overwhelming support. Officially and by common sense it was still a human nation, of course!
"...Call a press conference."
"Sir? But Vice Chairman told us not to make too big a move—"
"Shut up! Those bastards staged a false-flag attack and hit us with a surprise assault without even declaring war! Fine, we built defensive positions on the city outskirts—but they shelled the cities! Civilians even died, and the support ratio is 9:1? Impossible!"
The eyes of the enraged Director of China's Central Propaganda Department had rolled halfway back into his skull and were glittering with manic light.
"The world cannot possibly run this absurdly!"
The Deputy Director, who had always believed people were idiots, nevertheless declined to commit the foolish act of arguing with a man who had clearly lost his mind. This Director was that idiot.
"I'll prepare it at once, Comrade Director."
He simply bowed his head and agreed. The Deputy Director was satisfied that the record would show the Director had overridden his objections.
"Good. We will broadcast Korea's atrocities to the entire world. Put the victims' families on stage and carefully select the footage."
"Yes, sir!"
At the Director's order the Deputy Director hurried off to locate families of residents from the cities Korea had occupied.
Atrocities, my ass... Korea didn't even shell entire cities, yet he thinks foreign countries will just take our side. All they hit were the military bases on the outskirts. Does he actually believe the exaggerated story we spread about cities being bombarded at random?
The Deputy Director was full of complaints, yet he finished the assigned task cleanly. He managed to track down, in Beijing, the family of a resident who had bravely thrown rocks at the occupation forces, shoved a soldier, and ended up dead for it.
"S-so if I just cry and keep calling out my family's name, you'll give me money?"
"That's right. Simple enough, isn't it?"
"...Yes."
Han Wei, who had been cursing his thug of a brother for finally getting what he deserved, decided to participate in the performance with enthusiasm. Once he received enough cash he planned to convert it into marks and flee abroad. The state was arbitrarily blocking residents from leaving the cities, but with enough money one could grease the right palms and slip out.
A few days later, a press conference was held with foreign reporters summoned in force.
"Esteemed members of the world's fair and impartial press. We have convened this conference to denounce Korea's atrocities."
As the Director of the Central Propaganda Department spoke, countless camera flashes erupted.
"Our border cities have been set ablaze by Korean shelling. This is not merely China's affair. It is an insult to the conscience of all humanity."
The giant screen behind the Director lit up, replaying footage of residents being shot by Korean troops and of ruined buildings. It was followed by video of Han Wei, the dead resident's relative, weeping and screaming. For the record, they had reshot the scene more than thirty times. For the sake of realism they had even given certain non-visible parts of him a little extra handling. Still, he had received the promised money, so it was a relief! The amount had been trimmed a bit, but it was still enough to escape abroad.
"China has been attacked unilaterally."
The Director's words directly contradicted the global consensus. The entire planet's understanding was that wicked China had attacked Korea.
"Yet the international community views this war as a preemptive strike by China. What is your position on that?"
A foreign correspondent raised his hand and asked.
"That is a Korean false-flag operation. Otherwise how could they have reacted so quickly?"
Everyone had been puzzled by Korea's strangely swift and perfect counterattack, so for a moment a murmur of whispers passed among the foreign reporters.
"Korea has always been wary of China, so it would not be strange for them to have had such a counterattack plan ready."
A pro-Korean reporter openly defended Korea. That argument also carried considerable persuasive force. Both Korea and China would naturally have drawn up their own war plans. In this pro-Korean reporter's eyes, Korea's plan had simply been superior.
"The time of the Chinese shelling that Korea claims and the scramble time of Korea's stealth aircraft are almost simultaneous. By common sense that makes no sense."
On this point the Director only needed to state the facts, so he answered without hesitation. The continuing Q&A at the press conference managed to sway the reporters to a fair degree. Sensing that atmosphere, the Director became certain of success.
"Excellent! This will snap those Korean bastards awake."
Grinning from ear to ear as he waited for the articles to appear, the Director checked the published pieces himself.
"...What the hell is this garbage?! Those reporters all seemed convinced by what I said—so why?!"
The stunned Director could not understand it, but the outcome was inevitable.
"A journalist has a duty to report the truth, does he not?"
First there was America's blatant pressure. How was a reporter supposed to ignore pressure from a nation like the United States?
"Lend a hand for the sake of our unofficial ally."
On the General Secretary's orders, the NKVD had also dug up the reporters' weaknesses and "persuaded" (threatened) them.
"I just want this war to end quickly so I can go tour Korea."
On top of that, there were a great many pro-Korean reporters. That type had intended to slam China from the very beginning. The Director of the Central Propaganda Department seemed to have expected some kind of moral journalist, but such creatures were an endangered species.
Under the powerful force of this trinity, every foreign correspondent produced articles unfavorable to China. Of course, there did exist a few true journalists who refused to bow to any pressure and wrote honest pieces. But when a great power contending for world hegemony got serious, even such reporters could accomplish nothing. Articles were censored before publication; any that somehow slipped through by clever means were immediately taken down and revised. Occasionally the writers simply vanished. That was reality.
Unless China could at least drag the spectator nation of Germany onto its side, it would be unable to exert even the slightest force in the war of public opinion. For the record, superior Aryans did not associate with the yellow races—except for Korea-3, which had received the power of the Mods.
Unable even to grasp this piece of "common sense," the Director of the Central Propaganda Department paid the price of death at the hands of the enraged Chairman. Afterward, the Deputy Director who had tried to oppose him became the new Director of Propaganda.