Why does TikTok think zombies are running loose in China all of a sudden?

In an age of misinformation, every single news article and trend can come from truly bizarre origins, and a new TikTok has made people believe that there is a zombie outbreak coming from China.

But, what exactly is going on? Are there really zombies in China? Are we headed for a Walking Dead scenario?

Why do people think there is a Chinese zombie outbreak?

Fiction, meet reality.

A poorly translated (and curiously researched) opinion piece from American “apolitical” survivalist and military publication WeAreTheMighty.com recently reared its head on TikTok: some 13 months after the article was originally published (July 2021). The article, titled “This is how a zombie apocalypse is most likely to start in China” theorized that due to China being a “communist state”, it would be ground zero for brain-eaters.

It must be noted that China’s official governmental system is hard to pin down, with accusations of their system leaning more heavily into capitalist ideas than communist, with accusations as well of the Chinese Communist Party abandoning Marxism from some leftists. The ruling party should be distinguished from the official governmental system.

The article’s author states that the make-up of its government would suggest they’d cover up and suppress information around such a hypothetical outbreak, and cites a Chinese culture of “saving face”, which they believe would lead the government to then producing the vaccine.

The article ends with an editor’s note declaring it an opinion piece, and also features quotes from the book World War Z to support their opinion.

Why is it trending on TikTok?

The aforementioned opinion piece later saw a segment of it translated into different languages on TikTok, causing the fear and panic that an outbreak had just begun in the most populated country on Earth.

But how this began seems to be unclear as well: there is no ground zero for this trend other than perhaps internet users attempting to “Mandela effect” and gaslight their peers into believing it. Quickly, reaction memes were posted on TikTok around this premise of an outbreak.

In a pandemic-riddled world, it’s also a curious commentary on how Western nations view China and the underlying fear born out of obvious misinformation. The internet age has allowed information to spread faster than ever, and paradoxically given misinformation even more of a spread.

Let’s be clear: there are no zombies in China. If there were, you’d probably not find out via TikTok anyway.