Just when the world thought that the CCP Government had its firm grip on the COVID situation, cases of COVID infections returned with a vengeance, sweeping across major cities in China, including Shandong, Fujian, Shaanxi, and Shanghai.
Most notably in Shanghai, the COVID situation was apparently so badly mishandled by the Chinese authorities, that residents were having difficulties feeding themselves after the authorities thoughtlessly enforced an all out lockdown.
It is very rare for netizens in China to criticize their Government on the internet for fear of reprisals. However, netizens in China were so furious at the Chinese Government for how they handled the COVID crisis in Shanghai and other social issues, that they decided to unleash their fury upon the Chinese Government on Weibo.
Sharing on his Twitter account @ThisisWenHao, US based Journalist for Voice of America (VOA), Wen Hao, shared some very interesting observations he made on Weibo today.
Apparently, two topics trended today (14th Mar) on Weibo. The first of which pertained to rumors regarding the handling of the COVID situation in Shanghai, and the second, about the US being the biggest country with human rights deficit.
According to Wen Hao, in China, sensitive topics on the internet don’t top the chart unless approved by the authorities. Hence, the trending topics above could be seen as propaganda efforts by the CCP. Except, this time, the CCP’s plan to direct criticism at the West had backfired big time.
Chinese netizens who had enough about how badly the COVID crisis was handled in Shanghai, decided to occupy the hashtag “US is the biggest country of human rights deficit”, to express their anger at the Chinese authorities.
Cleverly disguised by satire, netizens in China unleashed their criticisms of the Chinese Government in Weibo posts. One such netizen raised the example of the toxic 996 work culture (working from 9am to 9pm 6 days a week), high housing prices, high interest rates, low income and commented that “the human rights China has the most human rights. lol”.
Another netizen commented in a rather sarcastic way, the excellent zero COVID death record in Shanghai, and how people’s pets were killed (referring to the killing of a corgi by a pandemic worker), and medical resources were wasted so that patients with more urgent needs miss the opportunities to be treated.
In another post, a netizen brought up the incidents of women in rural China who were chained up and forced to give birth to eight children, except they intentionally replaced the word “China” with “US” and commented that she was lucky to be born in China.
While most netizens employ some sort of satire and sarcasm to disguise their criticisms at the Chinese authorities, there were those who were more direct. One such netizen slammed the state media for always directing attention at what’s happening in the US, instead of caring for its own people. The netizen very bluntly commented “China is the most human rights deprived and authoritarian country in the world”.
The Chinese authorities would know that their efforts to drag the US through the mud had failed spectacularly, when a netizen who is anti-US is laughing at the state media’s blotched attempt to redirect attention. This netizen commented “The US is hypocritical. But promoting this hashtag at this time…Let’s not pretend to be some white lotus, okay?”
Journalist Wen Hao notes that for over five hours today, there was absolutely nothing but angry comments directed at the Chinese Government under the hashtag promoted by state media to direct negative attention towards the US.
The true test of a Government’s ability to handle the COVID crisis is not determined by how quickly it can implement lockdowns, but instead, how much of a normal life it can afford its citizens while stemming the spread of COVID at the same time.
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