David Bridges
Chinese president Xi Jinping. AP
Social media has been a useful tool for gauging public sentiment in China, since there are seldom any independent opinion surveys. However, it is practically impossible to look for opinions about Xi Jinping or other prominent politicians that don’t offer unrelenting praise in the run-up to a Communist Party congress.
Political protest is rare in China, and police are on high alert this week in the run-up to a major Communist Party congress.
In the weeks leading up to the Party Congress, The Wall Street Journal conducted checks on China’s most prominent social media sites, looking for mentions of Chinese President Xi, the standing committee members, and its 31 provincial and area Party chiefs.
Xi has presided over an expansion in censorship that has muzzled online debate in entirely new ways.
Chinese authorities have cracked down on influencers with dissenting views, introduced laws limiting speech on the web and fined companies for not adequately policing internet content.
Some of China’s social-media platforms return blank pages in response to searches for the seven leaders who form the apex of power in China, the Politburo Standing Committee, which includes Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. Others provide links to state-media reports promoting a tightly controlled narrative.
A search for Xi in Baidu Inc.’s online discussion forum Tieba, returns the message, “Sorry, according to related laws and government regulations, the following results cannot be shown.”
7/ When you try and search on Baidu’s online forum Tieba for Chinese President Xi Jinping, its a blank slate. Up pops a message: 抱歉，根据相关法律法规和政策，相关结果不予展现。”Sorry, according to related laws and policies, the results cannot be shown.” pic.twitter.com/2xF88Rc2SF
— Liza Lin (@lizalinwsj) October 15, 2022
Only material produced by state media or political organisations is featured on Douyin, the Chinese counterpart of TikTok operated by the company that owns TikTok. It is almost impossible to locate recordings of Chinese people discussing their leader among the app’s videos.
On China’s social-media platform WeChat and Zhihu.com, discussions about the Chinese leader similarly involve only media sources related to the state or the party.
One Zhihu post on a speech by Xi to a branch of the People’s Liberation Army in which he called for “the motherland to be unified”—a reference to taking control of Taiwan—appeared to have attracted almost 220 comments. None of them could be viewed; a message displayed said the comments section was closed.
5/ Weibo (2): Results are almost all articles or videos in some way linked to state media or government agencies. No surprise.. EXCEPT, the comments are also hidden from view… this post has 366 comments but only 3 are viewable. pic.twitter.com/dlAdSf5nih
— Liza Lin (@lizalinwsj) October 15, 2022
The Twitter-like Weibo platform allows searches for Xi’s name only by users in China, who must register with a Chinese cellphone number linked to their identity card and log in to see search results. Again, results are almost all articles or videos in some way linked to state media or government agencies.
4/ Weibo (1): Weibo doesn’t allow users without a Chinese cellphone number (no overseas users) to even search for Xi Jinping’s name in the app. You need to register and log-in with a Chinese number (linked to your ID) to do so.
— Liza Lin (@lizalinwsj) October 15, 2022
Because China has blocked out a lot of foreign news websites and information sources, there is little to balance the steady stream of state-television anchors or Foreign Ministry spokespeople waxing lyrical about Xi, or footage of him being cheered by crowds on visits to state-owned enterprises, party exhibitions or provinces across China.
With inputs from agencies
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