| dc.description.abstract | Starting from December 2022, China abandoned its previous “zero-COVID” policy, marking the end of three long years of COVID-19 era. Soon after, this policy shift caused the peak of infections nationwide, triggering a new health crisis. The authorities, who once successfully navigated the state from normalcy to crisis in the face of the initial health crisis of 2020, now faced a new challenge and encouraged the public to stay calm. This study combines qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze Xinhua News Agency’s news reports to explore how the Chinese authorities rationalized this policy shift to maintain legitimacy. I employ framing theory to analyze both the initial stage from January to April 2020 and the relaxation stage from December 2022 to February 2023 to dissect how they strategically framed the problems to guide public action during these two periods. My research results indicate that the authorities constructed the war image of humanity against the virus in the initial stage using tools like war metaphors and counter-conspiracy theories, which formed a simplistic good versus evil binary value judgment. In the relaxation stage, the authorities strategically constructed an image of sacrificing small costs for larger benefits, employing the scientific narratives to categorize people into different risk groups and then rationalized the policy shift for each group. I also found that in both policy shifts, the authorities retained the consistent value of prioritizing the safety of people’s lives and used the contrast with the experiences of other countries to reinforce national pride, consolidating the legitimacy of the ruling party. This paper provides empirical insights for constructing strategic framing and shifting framing during crisis moments. | eng |