Editor’s note for Monday, May 3, 2021
A note from the editor of today's The China Project Access newsletter.
My thoughts today:
The organization that controls all of Chinaโs police, security, and legal systems is the Chinese Communist Partyโs Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (ไธญๅ ฑไธญๅคฎๆฟๆณๅงๅไผ). Over the weekend, the Commission’s official Weibo account posted a tasteless joke: side-by-side photos of Chinaโs latest rocket launch with funeral pyres of COVID victims in India, with the caption โChina lights a fire vs. India lights a fire.โ ใ
The post was later deleted, but not before it had spread widely on global social media platforms like Twitter, inspiring one online cartoonist to depict the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission as a cannon that blows up in the face of Xรญ Jรฌnpรญng ไน ่ฟๅนณ even as a clownish Hรบ Xฤซjรฌn ่ก้ก่ฟ, editor of nationalist rag Global Times, brandishes a fire extinguisher.
Should we pay any attention at all to inflammatory social media posts from Chinese government sources? Perhaps not. The news media and we at The China Project are probably guilty of egging on aggressive Chinese government tweeting by reporting on it, but also of exaggerating its importance. That certainly seems to be the case in Australia according to a recent survey cited by the Sydney Morning Herald:
A single inflammatory tweet from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian accusing Australia of war crimes received more prominent coverage in two weeks than Xinjiang received in six months.
Chinaโs international propaganda news tabloid, The Global Times, has been quoted more frequently across Australian media than Xi Jinping or any member of the Chinese embassy.
On the other hand, in a post-Trump world, perhaps deranged tweeting is simply how the world communicates: See our top story today for details on a Wolf Warrior-like tweetstorm from the Foreign Minister of the Philippines.
Our word of the day is elderly people with chronic diseases (่้พๆ ข็ ไบบ lวolรญng mร n bรฌng rรฉn) โ see the links in Business and Technology today for the source.
Wei Sun Christianson is Managing Director of Asia Pacific and CEO of China for Morgan Stanley โ read a Q&A with her here, or catch her live at our annual Womenโs Conference on May 12 and 13. ACCESS Members can receive free entry on May 12 or 50% off entry on May 13 by using the promo code WC21ACCESS.
โJeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
