News about the attack on former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who passed away shortly after, is dominating international headlines today and is also the number one topic on Chinese social media on July 8.
Among the various related topics that are being discussed on Weibo, there is also the topic regarding the moment a Chinese reporter was fighting to hold back tears during a live broadcast about the attack on Shinzo Abe.
While talking about the former Prime Minister’s political career, the reporter, who works for the Chinese media outlet The Paper (澎湃), is trying to hold back tears, her voice trembling.
This is the moment a Chinese reporter is fighting to hold back tears during a live broadcast covering the death of Japan's former PM Shinzo Abe.
This moment and the reporter in question became a much-discussed topic today on Weibo, where she's accused of being unpatriotic. pic.twitter.com/qTx7Q4YdKu
The Japan-based reporter named Zeng Ying (曾颖) is receiving a lot of criticism online for showing emotions about Shinzo Abe, who is controversial in China for various things he said and did during and after his time in office.
Among other things, Abe is disliked in China for visiting Yasukuni, the shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including those who committed war crimes in China.
On Friday, there were many Chinese netizens celebrating the news about the attack on the former Prime Minister (read more here). Although there were also those posting candle emoji and expressing sadness over the shooting, the majority of comments did not mourn Shinzo Abe’s death, and many thought that Zeng Ying showing tears over the former Prime Minister was not just unprofessional, but also unpatriotic.
“I’m baffled to see you crying, are you even Chinese?”, some commenters wrote to Zeng Ying on Weibo.
“You are crying over a Japanese right-winger who has no respect for the history of the invasion of China, a Japanese who has no respect for the Chinese!”
Some Weibo users took offense at Zeng Ying’s tears and made hateful comments, writing things such as: “If you grieve his death so much, why don’t you go join him?”
“1.4 billion Chinese people, and you’re the only one crying,” one comment said.
Others vowed to boycott The Paper and said that had already deleted the news app from their phone.
Zeng Ying responded to the controversy herself, writing on Weibo:
“As a human being living on this earth, acts of terrorism should never be reveled about. I will forever stand by my own values, and be a good and honest person. This is the real me. I think if there are still people in this world who are malicious because of the difference between being “Chinese” and being “Japanese,” then it must be because people like me are not doing a good enough job. This year marks fifty years of friendship between China and Japan, and I will continue to do whatever I can within my limited power on this path. If scolding me makes people happier, then everyone can go ahead and scold me while also working together with me towards world peace, praying for world peace, and no more war between China and Japan ever again. The most miserable people are always the ordinary people. If I made people feel bad by crying, or hurt your feeling, I apologize for losing my self-control. It came from a sense of despair over the panic over public security in the place where I am now and the current [state of] Japanese economy. Commentators need to be objective, and I was not professional enough. I will try to do better in the future. I’m Chinese, and no matter what, I shouldn’t have put my personal feelings on display on this public platform. I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”
According to the post’s editing history, Zeng Ying edited her comment a total of six times, adding to her post after she had already posted the first few sentences.
“I’m from Nanjing, and I won’t forgive you,” one Weibo user wrote, referring to the Nanjing Massacre, one of the most gruesome episodes of the Second Sino-Japanese war committed by the Japanese invader.
“You can cry once you’re home. Japanese people can also cry. Just don’t cry while you’re live on air in China,” one of the somewhat kinder comments said.
“You’re in Japan, but you’re not Japanese. Don’t you understand, did you not study history?”
Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our weekly newsletter and get access to our latest articles:
Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.
Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.
Op-eds authored by Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin were published in the other countries’ government newspapers ahead of Xi’s three-day state visit to Russia. Both articles emphasized the importance of partnership, mutual trust, and friendship between the two nations.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on Monday, March 20, for his scheduled state visit to Russia.
During his three-day Moscow visit, Xi will have one-on-one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is the first time Xi visits Russia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On the first day of the top-level meeting, the Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily headlined that Xi Jinping published an article in the Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on the occasion of his state visit, while also featuring the news about Putin’s signed article on the front page (the actual article was published on page three).
Meanwhile, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta did the same: they also featured Xi’s publication on the front page of their digital newspaper, while also turning Putin’s contribution to the People’s Daily into one of the main headlines. The newspaper also published a special section dedicated to Sino-Russian friendship.
Xi’s article, in Russian here and in Chinese here, was also translated to English and published by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on their website here.
The article, titled “Forging Ahead to Open a New Chapter of China-Russia Friendship, Cooperation and Common Development” (“踔厉前行,开启中俄友好合作、共同发展新篇章”) mainly stresses the strong bond and mutual trust between China and Russia and the future of Sino-Russian relations, with the word “cooperation” being used 22 times and the word “friendship” used 8 times in the text. The most-mentioned word in the text is “China” (24 times); “Russia” was mentioned 22 times.
“Ukraine” was mentioned three times in one paragraph about the ‘Ukraine crisis,’ which emphasized China’s “impartial position” and its active promotion of peace talks.
Word cloud of Xi’s text for Russian newspaper (What’s on Weibo/Word Art).
The article by Putin is titled “Russia and China – A Future-Bound Partnership” (“俄罗斯和中国——面向未来的伙伴关系”) (link in Chinese, link in English) and it is similar to Xi’s op-ed in multiple ways, and also focused on stressing the special friendship between both countries and how similar they allegedly are in their culture, tradition, and foreign policy.
The article was actually also very similar to an earlier article titled “Russia and China: A Future-Oriented Strategic Partnership” published by Vladimir Putin for Chinese state media outlet Xinhua just before the Winter Olympics and Putin’s visit to China in 2022 (link in English).
The current article condemns America’s role in the international community and thanks China for its approach to the Ukrainian issue. The word that comes up most often in the text is “Russia” (20 times); “China” is mentioned 18 times. Words such as “cooperation” and “partnership” also come up a lot (7 and 5 times respectively).
Word cloud made from Putin’s text for People’s Daily, by What’s on Weibo via Word Art.
The hashtag “Xi Jinping Published Signed Article in Russian Media” (#习近平在俄罗斯媒体发表署名文章#) was posted on social media site Weibo by Xinhua.
China Daily posted images featuring several quotes from Xi’s signed article in Chinese and English.
While it was not the first time for Putin to post an op-ed in a Chinese state media newspaper, it was also not the first time for Xi Jinping to publish a signed article in a Russian government newspaper. He also posted one in 2015 (link in Chinese).
Xi previously also published letters or bylined articles in the media of other countries.
Ahead of his state visit to Finland in 2017, the Finnish newspaper Helsinki Timesfeatured Xi’s article titled “Our Enduring Friendship” (“穿越历史的友谊”). Xi also stressed bilateral relations in letters to the foreign media of countries such as Myanmar, Greece, Nepal, North Korea, and others.
The term used by Xi in the article, “starting a new chapter” (“开启时代新篇章”) was repeated by many commenters replying to the topic on Weibo, where Xi’s Russia visit is covered by many media accounts in videos, text, and images.
In a recent post, political commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) noted how Xi’s Russia visit made international headlines, underlining the major significance of the meeting. Hu wrote that no third party could hinder the “steady development of Sino-Russian relations.” At time of writing, only three out of more than a hundred replies to Hu’s post were displayed – the three replies consisted of hearts and thumbs up emoji only – with the other comments being filtered.
Although the meeting between Xi and Putin was promoted in the Weibo trending lists, most posts about the state visit only allowed some selected replies in the threads below, or simply closed the comment sections. This was also the case went Putin’s annual address in Moscow was featured by various accounts on Weibo.
For more articles on China-Russian relations and related Weibo discussions, check our archives here.
Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:
Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.
Ren Xiaorong (任小融) joined the Chinese state media outlet People’s Daily as a virtual presenter/news anchor this week.
Ren Xiaorong is the AI-powered host of an app allowing users to ask questions related to the Two Sessions, the annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that have been taking place this week.
Through the People’s Daily app, you can ask Ren Xiaorong to tell you more about various topics covered during the Two Sessions, including education, epidemic prevention, housing, employment, environmental protection, and many other issues.
According to the introduction video launched by People’s Daily, Ren is also available to discuss other news topics people would like to know more about.
Ren Xiaorong is interactive to a certain (very limited) extent; users can select the topics they want to learn more about, but the app does not yet allow to ask specific questions.
A related hashtag went viral on Weibo on Sunday (#人民日报AI虚拟主播#), triggering discussions on the use of virtual news presenters.
Ren Xiaorong is not the first People’s Daily virtual news anchor. In 2019, the very first AI-powered presenter was unveiled at the 2019 Big Data Expo (#人民日报首位AI虚拟主播#). Guo Guo (果果), aka Little Guo Guo (小果果), was based on the real-life Chinese reporter Guo Xinyu (果欣禹).
Guo Guo and Guo Xinyu
China’s state media outlets Xinhua, Beijing TV, Hunan TV, and CCTV previously also unveiled their own AI-powered virtual news anchors at a time when China’s virtual idol market started to explode.
During the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, there was also a virtual host and China’s first AI sign language presenter.
Although news media outlets have started experimenting with virtual presenters for some time now, some netizens are still not convinced about the actual purpose of having virtual TV hosts and news anchors, especially when their AI-driven interactive functions are still limited.
Weibo blogging account ‘Media People Online’ (@传媒人在线) writes: “I’ve never really understood this, is there a shortage of broadcasting talent, or are AI anchors better at it? Why would you use a robot to broadcast the news? Are you spending so much money on an AI presenter just to show technological progress?”
But other bloggers (@夏日之阳新闻传播考研) think that virtual anchors could improve the quality and availability of news, since they could broadcast around the clock while saving on manpower, alleviating the pressure on newsrooms.
Whether people approve of virtual news readers or not, most agree Ren Xiaorong, along with her virtual colleagues, is a harbinger of the digitalization of the media at a time when artificial intelligence has already come to play a pivotal role in everyday activities.
Want to see Ren Xiaorong at work? Click this link on mobile.
Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:
Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.