We examine Chinese diplomats’ use of Twitter in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although blocked in China, some Chinese officials use Twitter to communicate directly with foreign audiences, demonstrating the government’s experimentation with new public diplomacy channels. We argue that China does so not only as a pandemic-related crisis management/public relations effort but also to disseminate a strategic narrative (SN) articulating its foreign policy priorities. We analyze a selection of tweets from two spokespersons of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the content of which evolves over three stages. In each stage, distinct narrative themes emerge to construct a cohesive SN across three dimensions: issues, role identity, and the international system. This SN effort presents both potential for Chinese public diplomacy and challenges given its discrepancies with Western narratives.