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Digital Diplomacy: These Foreign Embassies Are Most (Un)Popular on Weibo

‘Weiplomacy’ is here; Weibo and other social media platforms are a tool for government public diplomacy purposes. What’s on Weibo gives an overview of Weibo’s most (un)popular foreign embassies.

Manya Koetse

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As social media has become an increasingly common tool for government public diplomacy purposes, a large number of foreign embassies in China now has a presence on Sina Weibo to engage with local audiences. As Weibo diplomacy a.k.a. ‘Weiplomacy’ is becoming more important, What’s on Weibo gives an overview of Weibo’s most (un)popular foreign embassies.

Digital diplomacy is a hot topic. Embassies all over the world increasingly use social media as a low-cost and convenient tool to promote their countries, inform people about their latest activities and engage with their followers.

Many embassies can be found on Facebook, Twitter or Youtube, but also on China’s Sina Weibo or WeChat, changing the way foreign embassies engage with with local audiences in China.

E-Diplomacy: Up & Downsides

Foreign embassies on Weibo have recently been getting more scholarly attention. In “Social Media and E-Diplomacy: Scanning Embassies on Weibo” (2017), Ying Jiang writes that social media is an effective way for embassies to communicate to target groups, more so than conventional (offline) public diplomacy.

However, Jiang also points out that the presence of foreign embassies on Weibo has its downsides, as web users can vent their anger and post negative comments to embassy pages if they are against the policies of those countries.

This is especially apparent on embassy pages such as that of the Japanese embassy in China, where people often leave anti-Japanese comments and pictures related to the Sino-Japanese war.

Comments on the page of the Japanese embassy in China related to WWII.

Comments on the page of the Japanese embassy in China related to WWII.

But there are also countless negative comments on pages of other embassies. On the Weibo page of the German embassy in China, for example, Weibo users have posted many critiques on the country’s refugee policies after a post about new visa announcements. One netizen says: “If Germany doesn’t solve its refugee problem, the country has zero attractiveness anymore.”

On the USA embassy page, netizens leave comments such as: “The US truly is an evil country. You’re the world’s biggest terrorist organization.”

But visitors also often leave words of praise to embassy accounts. On the Danish embassy’s account, for example, some call Denmark “a magical place”, with the “land of fairytales” seemingly captivating the minds of many Chinese netizens.

When Thailand’s king passed away in October 2016, the Thai embassy page on Weibo was filled with condolences from Chinese expressing their grief and stressing the friendship between the Chinese and Thai.

Ying Jiang’s research calculated the number of reactions to every post on Weibo’s embassies with the most followers and found that even if an embassy had the most followers, it was not necessarily most influential based on their received comments and amount of post shares.

According to Ying Jiang’s data, which was collected in the first half of 2015, the Canadian embassy had the largest following on Sina Weibo, followed by the USA, Cuba, UK and South Korea, with the latter being most influential based on its interactions with its followers.

It seems that things have changed over the past two years, as the following list of foreign embassies collected and compiled by What’s on Weibo shows a different order of popularity.

Weibo’s Top 5 Embassies

Although the Canadian, Cuban, US and South Korean embassies are still popular in terms of followers on Weibo, the Brazilian, Japanese, and especially Israeli embassies now have the highest number of fans on Weibo.

The popularity of the Canadian embassy on Weibo can undoubtedly partly be attributed to the strong promotion of China-Canada friendship, the popularity of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and perhaps even the great popularity of the Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, who is honored in China for his role as a battleground surgeon during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

But most importantly, Canada’s success on Weibo is a result of its own endeavors on Chinese social media. In a DiploFoundation interview with Mark McDowell, Counsellor of the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, McDowell stresses the importance of the so-called ‘weiplomacy’ (微郊外 Weibo diplomacy) to the Canadian embassy, that has boosted its efforts in using social media as an efficient form of public diplomacy.

McDowell says the Canadian embassy in China posts about 20 to 30 Weibo messages per week, on topics varying from business news to visa issues, the ways Canada measures air pollution, or information about studying in Canada – all topics that interest their large group of followers on Weibo.*

But the current most popular embassy on Weibo is not Canada, nor Cuba or any of the biggest embassies mentioned in Ying Jiang’s 2015 research; it is the Embassy of Israel, that currently has over 1.9 million fans on its Weibo page, where it has posted a total of 3590 posts at the time of writing (in comparison: the Canadian embassy had posted 6979 posts at this time).

Top five according to What’s on Weibo, December 2016:

1. Israeli embassy (@以色列驻华使馆) – 1.913.384 followers
2. Canadian embassy (@加拿大大使馆官方微博)
– 1.131.700+ followers
3. US embassy (@美国驻华大使馆) – 1.035.300+ followers
4. Brazilian embassy (@巴西驻华大使馆) – 522.310+ followers
5. Japanese embassy (@日本国驻华大使馆) – 480.500+ followers

Why is Israel so popular on Weibo?

What makes the Embassy of Israel so popular on Weibo? Overall, Chinese netizens seem to have a positive attitude towards the country. It is, among others, shared memories of the history of WWII that have contributed to the present strong relations between China and Israel.

In 2015, the Consulate General of Israel in Shanghai published a video that featured hundreds of Israelis holding “Thank you” signs in Chinese as a sign of gratitude for Shanghai helping the Jews during WWII. It also included a message from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing thanks to the Chinese people.

Shimon Peres, former President of Israel.

Shimon Peres, former President of Israel.

In 2014, late Israeli president Shimon Peres became a trending topic on Weibo when he registered for an account and met with Chinese president Xi Jinping. The “handsome old president” was warmly welcomed by Weibo users. One netizen said: “Israel really has been very good to China. During World War II, China took in a lot of Jewish refugees helping them avoid the disaster of war, and now this ethnicity truly knows how to be thankful. This is the kind of country that China should foster good relations with, and whether it be Israel or Pakistan, these are the true brothers of China. Anyway, this president is truly so adorable, and I just love adorable uncles [older men]” (China Smack 2014).

In 2014, the Australian reported that Israeli president Shimon Peres was one of the few Western leaders maintaining a social media presence in China, and that he had over 450,000 followers. When Peres passed away in September 2016, many web users visited the Israeli embassy account to share their condolences, praising the former president as a friend of China.

Web users lighting digital candles for Peres and posting their condoleances on the Israeli Embassy Weibo site.

Web users lighting digital candles for Peres and posting their condoleances on the Israeli Embassy Weibo site.

According to Robert Lakin (@LakinTLV), founder of Analytika Research, Israel’s popularity on Weibo is a case of cause and effect.

“The Israel Foreign Ministry has really stepped up its game on social media,” Lakin tells What’s on Weibo: “The Israel Defense Force’s has also boosted its use of social media. As the country puts out more buzz-worthy content, the effect is a jump in social followers. This includes lots of peripheral, one-off activity, too.” Lakin also mentions the influence of the Times of Israel‘s Chinese language website, which might have contributed to the Israeli success on Weibo.

What About the ‘Unpopular’ Foreign Embassies?

With countries such as Israel and Canada having a relatively positive image among Chinese people – which also reflects in their popularity on social media – does this mean that the lowest-ranking foreign embassies on Weibo also are of those nations that have a less positive reputation in China?

Not necessarily so. According to What’s on Weibo, the embassies of Estonia, Monaco and Indonesia have the lowest number of followers on Weibo, but this also has to do with the low activity on the concerning accounts; Estonia last posted in 2012, Indonesia in 2014, whereas Monaco has just posted its 75 first posts on the social media platform.

List of Foreign Embassies on Weibo

This is the list of foreign embassies currently present on Sina Weibo, from most popular to less popular in terms of followers. The great majority of these accounts have all been verified by Sina Weibo as the official embassy of their country (‘V’ status); if not, it has been noted.

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1. Israeli embassy (@以色列驻华使馆) 1.913.384 followers

2. Canadian embassy (@加拿大大使馆官方微博) 1.131.700+ followers

3. US embassy (@美国驻华大使馆) 1.035.300+ followers

4. Brazilian embassy (@巴西驻华大使馆) 522.310+ followers

5. Japanese embassy (@日本国驻华大使馆) 480.500+ followers

6. South-Korean embassy (@韩国驻华大使馆) 396.960+ followers

7. Cuban embassy (@古巴驻华大使馆) 358.950+ followers

8. British embassy (@英国大使馆文化教育处) 289.280+ followers

9. French embassy (@法国驻华使馆) 255.240+ followers

10. Russian embassy (@俄罗斯驻华大使馆) 167.539+ followers

11. Australian embassy (@澳大利亚驻华使领馆) 165.240+ followers

12. German embassy (@德国驻华大使馆) 147.230+ followers

13. Embassy of Myanmar (@中缅胞波兄弟情) 146.000 followers

14. Danish embassy (@中缅胞波兄弟情) 丹麦驻华大使馆) 139.760+ followers

15. Thai embassy (@泰国驻华大使馆) 104.570+ followers

16. Swiss embassy (@瑞士驻华大使馆) 99.190+ followers

17. Swedish embassy (@瑞典驻华大使馆微博) 68.310+ followers

18. Dutch embassy (@荷兰驻华大使馆) 68.070+ followers

19. Mexican embassy (@墨西哥驻华大使馆) 50.160+ followers

20. Belgian embassy (@比利时驻华使馆) 49585+ followers

21. Italian embassy (@意大利驻华使馆) 46.330+ followers

22. Polish embassy (@波兰使馆文化处) 39185+ followers

23. Nepal embassy (@尼泊尔大使馆官方微博) 37.177+ followers

24. New Zealand embassy (@新西兰驻华大使馆) 37.140+ followers

25. Mauritanian embassy (@毛里塔尼亚驻华大使馆) 36.545+ followers

26. Zimbabwean embassy (@中国驻津巴布韦大使馆) 35.450+ followers

27. Costa Rican embassy (@哥斯达黎加驻华大使馆) 34.930+ followers

28. Peruvian Embassy (@秘鲁驻华使馆) 33.507 followers

29. Portugese embassy (@葡萄牙驻华大使馆) 28.380+ followers

30. Maldives embassy (@马尔代夫驻华大使馆) 22.460+ followers

31. Indian embassy (@印度使馆文化处) 22.225+ followers

32. Irish embassy (@爱尔兰驻华大使馆) 20.191+ followers

33. Spanish embassy (@西班牙驻华大使馆官方微博) 16.030+ followers

34. Austrian embassy (@奥地利驻华使馆) 15.960+ followers

35. Norwegian embassy (@挪威驻华大使馆) 11.800+ followers

36. Turkish embassy / official tourism board (@土耳其旅游局) 67.430+ followers

37. Kazakhstan embassy (@哈萨克斯坦驻华大使馆) 12.670+ followers

38. Ukranian embassy (@乌克兰信使) 9960+ followers

39. Iranian Embassy (@伊朗驻华大使馆) 6166 followers [not verified]

40. Rwandan embassy (@卢旺达驻华大使馆) 5480+ followers

41. Lithuanian embassy (@立陶宛驻华大使馆商务处) 3170+ followers

42. Chilean embassy (@智利驻中国大使馆) 2540+ followers

43. Sri Lankan embassy (@中国驻斯里兰卡大使馆) 2109 followers

44. Egyptian embassy (@埃及驻华大使馆) [account not verified] 910+ followers (Note: the account of the official Egypt tourism board on Weibo has 28392 followers).

45. Estonian Embassy (@爱沙尼亚驻华大使馆) [account not verified] 540+ followers

46. Embassy of Monaco (@摩纳哥公国大使馆) 450+ followers

47. Indonesian Embassy (@印度尼西亚驻华大使馆) [account not verified] 350+ followers

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With Sina Weibo currently seeing a revival and WeChat being China’s number one app, the use of these social media platforms in digital diplomacy is essential for foreign embassies wanting to engage with millions of Chinese – not just for the sake of providing information about traveling, arranging visas, or studying abroad, but also for the mere purpose of boosting their nation’s image in China.

With China’s online population growing as we write, and its social media features getting more versatile by the day, this might just be the beginning of China’s digital platforms being used as a diplomatic tool for foreign embassies.

Please follow us to stay up-to-date on more articles on this topic in the near future.

– By Manya Koetse
Follow on Twitter or Like on Facebook

*According to Globe and Mail, not all of the Canadian embassy’s followers are actually ‘real’; in a 2014 article, the website alleged that nearly 87% of the Canadian embassy account fans are ‘zombies’; fake accounts that do not represent actual persons. The Canadian government, however, stated it had never paid for the alleged fake followers and that it does not know where they come from. Note that for this article, we have not done any research into ‘fake followers’ and do not know if the top-ranking embassies have fake followers, and if so, how many there would be.

References

Bjola, Corneliu and Marcus Holmes (ed). 2015. Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice. Routledge: London and New York.

Cai, Peter. 2014. “How Israel is winning the social media war in China.” The Australian, September 2 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/how-israel-is-winning-the-social-media-war-in-china/news-story/08fb25d94b34b3036616c0334531ddc6 [20.12.16].

Jiang, Ying. 2017. “Social Media and E-Diplomacy: Scanning Embassies on Weibo.” In: Naren Chitty, Li Ji, Gary D. Rawnsley, Craig Hayden (ed), The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power. New york: Routledge: New York.

Rugh, William A. 2014. Front Line Public Diplomacy: How US Embassies Communicate with Foreign Publics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

What’s on Weibo is an independently run news blog. We accept donations to help us keep the site going. Donating is possible via www.paypal.me/whatsonweibo.

©2016 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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.

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Avatar

    Bjorn

    December 21, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    You forgot to add the EU Delegation to China to the list: 150 000+ followers 😀

  2. Avatar

    James

    December 24, 2016 at 3:40 pm

    Is the Chinese 微郊外 correct? Should be 微外交 no?

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China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

BMW Ice Cream Gate: Three Reasons Why a MINI Story Became a Major Incident

There is more behind the BMW MINI ice cream incident than ice cream alone.

Manya Koetse

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The Shanghai Auto Show’s BMW MINI booth and its employees found themselves at the center of a social media storm after a video of their free ice cream promotional campaign made it seem like foreigners got free ice cream while Chinese visitors were told no. The incident has had a major impact, both online and offline. What caused a seemingly minor event to escalate into a significant controversy?

It is the noteworthy incident that made international headlines over the past week: a freebie marketing campaign by German automotive company BMW at the Shanghai Auto Show went horribly wrong.

The incident happened on April 20, 2023, at the Shanghai show’s MINI booth, where two Chinese female workers were giving out free ice cream from a local brand.

A video was posted on Chinese video platforms Bilibili and Douyin that showed staff at the booth refusing ice cream to a local visitor by stating that it had all been given away. However, when a foreign attendee approached, the staff suddenly had ice cream readily available for them.

The person who was filming, a Chinese man named Sun, then stepped up to the booth and ask for ice cream himself. The girls then suggested an app was needed for that, and that they had limited supplies. The video further showed that the only people actually enjoying the Luneurs brand ice cream were all foreigners.

The video footage soon went viral and sparked public outrage over discrimination against Chinese visitors of the show.

Screenshots from the video showed employees ignoring Chinese visitors and giving foreigners icecream (via Weibo).

BMW MINI tried to avert a marketing disaster by issuing an official apology via its social media channels in China on the same day, stating that they regretted that their sweet promotional campaign caused unhappiness “due to the lack of internal management and staff negligence.”

Many people, however, thought the apology was insufficient. “ChatGPT could write [a better apology] than this,” a typical comment said, and some even gave examples of ChatGPT writing a better apology.

“If I can speak English can I have some ice cream?”, another popular comment said. Others said they would never consider buying BMW again.

On April 21, BMW MINI released another statement on its Weibo account, in which they indicated that they had given away 600 ice creams in two days for people coming to the booth with vouchers distributed via the MINI app. At the booth, they had also set aside a few ice creams for their own “very hard-working colleagues” at the show. The statement said that the foreigners in the video were all BMW colleagues, wearing a badge.

They again apologized for the controversy and admitted they had mismanaged the situation, adding that they hope that people can have some tolerance and space for the two female workers who are young and were just newly employed.

The two female employees were reportedly dismissed and the ice cream promotional campaign was stopped (#宝马mini两名发冰淇淋女生已离职#). “You should replace your PR team,” some people suggested.

The controversy further intensified when news came out that, also on Thursday, one female live blogging at the BMW MINI booth was sent away and removed by security.

How could ice creams at an auto show trigger such heated nationwide discussions? There are multiple factors, including historical, societal, marketing, and online media dynamics, that contributed to the incident becoming such a significant issue.

 

1. Painful History: “No Dogs and Chinese Allowed”

 

One of the reasons why the BMW MINI story triggered such sharp criticism, accusations of racism, and emotional reactions, is because the incident stirs up collective memories of a sensitive period in history when Chinese faced humiliation and discrimination by the hands of foreign powers.

In discussions on the BMW MINI ice cream incident, the phrase “Chinese and Dogs Not Admitted” (“华人与狗不得入内”) came up again and again in online comments and memes.

The phrase is widely remembered in the context of a sign in front of Shanghai’s Huangpu Park that was closed to Chinese people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries during the International Settlement. The fact that the ice cream incident took place in Shanghai further reinforced the connection to this local history.

The “No Dogs and Chinese Allowed” sentence, by the way, was never actually displayed as an official sign at the park gate. But there was still a regulation at some point that Chinese visitors, except servants, were not allowed in the park. Bicycles and dogs were also not allowed in the park. Eventually, “No Dogs and Chinese Allowed” turned into a symbol of the nation’s “historical humiliation” (Bickers & Wasserstrom 1995: 446-449).

The sign was also featured in the Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury, and one relevant scene in the film was also shared on Weibo in light of the BMW MINI controversy (watch the scene here).

Because the (imagined) Huangpu sign has left such a lasting imprint on the collective memory of the Chinese public, it comes back up in online discussions whenever there are viral incidents in which Chinese people are made to feel unequal to foreigners in any way.

“So many years have passed, yet still fundamentally there is still [the idea] that foreigners are above us,” one commenter wrote. Others spoke of “BMW’s ‘Chinese and dogs not allowed’ attitude,” and one article called the BMW ice cream incident the 21st century version of “Chinese and dogs not allowed” (“宝马mini冰淇淋事件,是21世纪的“华人与狗不得入内“).

Multiple online discussions associate the BMW ice cream incident with the history of Chinese not being allowed to enter public parks during foreign occupation.

In 2018, Chinese bike-sharing service Ofo received massive criticism when it was exposed that they would give foreigners their deposits back while Chinese customers were ignored. One news headline about special tourist trains for Chinese tourists in Switzerland also triggered controversy in 2015.

When various foreign countries imposed Covid-related travel restrictions only for passengers from China in January of 2023, many netizens also responded with resentment and anger, partly fuelled by Chinese media reports describing the rules as a form of foreign revenge, discrimination against the Chinese, and political conspiracy.

 

2. Consumer Nationalism amd Western Brands

 

Another reason why the Shanghai Auto Show incident received so much attention relates to the specific dynamics of consumer nationalism in China and the BMW brand reputation.

One type of nationalism that has become especially prevalent on Chinese social media in recent years involves online anger Chinese netizens demonstrate toward Western brands. This goes hand in hand with a shift in consumer sentiments, a growing popularity of made-in-China brands along with a rise in cultural nationalism and changing international dynamics (read more).

In July of 2022, the French luxury fashion house Dior came under fire after netizens discovered one of its skirts resembled a Chinese traditional skirt known as mǎmiànqún (马面裙). The brand did not acknowledge that it had used the Chinese traditional design and online anger grew, with many netizens accusing Dior of cultural appropriation (read here).

Western brands faced heavy criticism in China in 2021 when a social media storm erupted over the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and its brand members for no longer sourcing from China’s Xinjiang region. The ‘Xinjiang cotton ban’ led to a major ‘Xinjiang cotton support’ campaign on Weibo, and a boycott for those brands siding with BCI (read here).

Image “Chinese fashion first: consumer nationalism and ‘China Chic’, by Ami/Goethe, see article here.

Condemnation and boycotting of Western brands also became prevalent during the Hong Kong protests in 2019, when Chinese social media users and state media condemned foreign brands for showing any signs of disregarding the One-China Policy. Asics, Calvin Klein, Coach, Givenchy, Versace, Swarovksi, and others were blamed for not respecting China’s sovereignty by listing Hong Kong and Taiwan as different countries on their websites or other products (read here).

In 2018, Italian fashion house D&G got caught up in a major controversy when its promo video campaign came under fire. In of their videos, a Chinese female model clumsily attempted to eat a large cannoli bread with chopsticks; a voice-over said that the cannoli might be “too big” for her. It was not received very well by many netizens on Chinese social media, where people called it “outdated and stereotypical,” “racist,” and “disrespectful.” The controversy snowballed out of control from there and became much worse after screenshots of racist comments attributed to fashion designer Stefano Gabba went viral (read here).

The recent BMW incident is thus part of a larger pattern of Western brands being accused of insulting and disrespecting Chinese people, while the popularity of Chinese (car) brands is rising. Earlier this month, What’s on Weibo wrote an article about how BMW often makes headlines in China in the context of horrific hit-and-run incidents and how the negative headlines are impacting BMW’s brand image in China.

BMW’s negative brand reputation in China exacerbates the impact of the ice cream incident, rather than alleviating it.

Although the brand has had a positive image for its high-quality and luxurious cars, it has also received a lot of unfavorable publicity, creating more negative associations – BMW drivers are generally seen as materialstic and flaunting their wealth. The nationwide attention for the ice cream incident and BMW MINI’s response to it has further damaged the brand’s reputation. The BMW stocks saw a price dip following the incident.

For some BMW car owners, the incident has also had negative consequences. According to various social media posts and photos, some BMW MINI owners saw their cars being scratched or vandalized over the past few days. At least one BMW MINI owner saw ice cream smeared over the front of their car.

 

3. The Snowball Effect of Social Media Storms

 

The incident involving BMW sparked a massive online controversy on Chinese social media, which quickly gained momentum. Initially triggered by one single video, it rapidly spiraled out of control as thousands of netizens joined in, expressing their views and creating their own videos and memes (also see this Twitter thread).

Some social media users also used old cartoons ridiculing preferential treatment for foreigners.

“Classic cartoon never goes out of date” (via Weibo/QCJ大王同学).

One meme suggested that “BMW” stands for: Bīngqílín (冰淇淋, Ice cream), Miǎnfèi (免费, Free), and Wàiguórén (外国人, Foreigners).

Besides general social media users, major brands also played a role in hyping up the incident. Other brands and companies used the firestorm to their advantage. Audi, for example, announced via social media that they would also be handing out ice cream only for Chinese people and other brands also started their own ice cream campaigns.

Chinese media outlets also played a major role in the incident as they kept reporting about the incident and promoted it on social media. By now, there are dozens of Weibo hashtags surrounding the incident and its aftermath, and the majority of them are initiated by Chinese media channels.

Chinese state media accounts also jabbed at BMW. CCTV aired an item showing that there is plenty of ice cream for all staff members on board of the Shandong PLA Navy aircraft carrier. Xinhua News even turned it into a hashtag, accompanied by a laughing emoji (#山东舰今天的冰淇淋是草莓味的#).

Screenshots from CCTV.

“We won’t give it to other countries,” some commenters joked: “Only Chinese can eat it.”

Meanwhile, some big KOL and influencer acounts also helped to attract more attention to the case by discussing it. Chinese political commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进), for example, also analyzed the incident. Although Hu called on netizens to be reasonable and have some understanding for the ordinary people who suddenly find themselves at the center of a social media storm, the mere fact that Hu brought the incident up multiple times to his 25 million Weibo followers perhaps did not exactly help in quieting things down.

For now, it seems that the BMW incident might keep fermenting for some time to come. While everyone is still talking about the ice cream incident, a second marketing faux-pas has already come up again as the next promotional freebie given away to visitors at the Shanghai Auto Show BMW booth is a wooden dog-shaped key hanger, giving people the option to engrave their name on it.

Many people also had an issue with this promo campaign: “So first they won’t give us ice cream, now they’re handing out dog tags with our name on it?”

Despite the controversy, many people still lined up at the BMW booth to get their freebies. The online discussions on the issue only seemed to bring more people to the car show. Turns out that bad publicity, after all, is still publicity.

Read more BMW-related articles here.

By Manya Koetse, with contributions by Miranda Barnes  

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References

Bickers, Robert A., and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. 1995. “Shanghai’s ‘Dogs and Chinese Not Admitted’ Sign: Legend, History and Contemporary Symbol.” The China Quarterly 142: pp. 444–66. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/655423. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.

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Part of featured image by Mae Mu on Unsplash

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China Digital

Cyberspace Administration of China Lays Out Rules for Generative AI Content: “Should Reflect the Core Values of Socialism”

Stricter control of AI services is widely supported, but some think China inevitably will fall behind in the generative AI race.

Manya Koetse

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China’s central internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (国家互联网信息办公室), issued proposed measures relating to the development and use of AI chatbots and other AI tools in China to solicit feedback from the public during the initial legislative drafting process. People can send in their views and comments on the draft until May 10 of this year.

The current draft, published on April 11 (translation here), explicitly focuses on managing the “healthy development” of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, referring to any type of AI system capable of generating text, images, or other media in response to prompts. Over the past few months, ChatGPT in particular has become a widely used tool across the world to generate human-like responses to a wide range of questions and topics, but services such as Midjourney have also become popular to generate images.

In China, ChatGPT has also triggered a lot of online discussions on the ways in which it could be used, the effect it will have on the labor market, and issues related to privacy, copyright, and censorship in China (read ‘ChatGPT in China‘).

Although users in mainland China officially cannot sign up to use Open AI’s ChatGPT, many people do find ways to use the platform. Earlier this year, while discussions about ChatGPT were prevalent in Weibo’s trending lists, Chinese tech giants announced their own plans to develop similar ChatGPT-like services: Baidu has Erniebot, Alibaba is rolling out Tongyi Qianwen, while Bytedance, Tencent, and Netease are also working on their own LLM (Large Language Models) chatbots.

As 2023 is already the year of the chatbot, it is perhaps unsurprising for China’s internet authorities to lay out the rules surrounding generative AI technologies.

There are a total of 21 sections or articles listed in the document. Many of the proposed rules are quite general and are about AI-generated content and ChatGPT-like services having to be in line with China’s overall internet and privacy laws.

The draft suggests that AI-generated content should “reflect the core values of socialism” (“应当体现社会主义核心价值观”), should not undermine the state authority nor the socialist system, cannot be harmful to national unity or social cohesion, and it also may not promote terrorism, extremism, discrimination, violence, obscenities, nor spread false information (article 1).

AI-generated content should not just be true and accurate, it should also ensure that the legitimate interests of others are respected and prevent harm to their physical and mental well-being, as well as damage to their reputation, privacy, and intellectual property rights (article 4).

In accordance with the Cybersecurity Law of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国网络安全法), users of generative AI models should also register under their real name (article 9).

These kinds of AI service providers also should take clear and transparent measures to prevent users from becoming overly dependent or addicted to AI-generated content (article 10).

On Weibo, many comments relating to the proposed measures are supportive of them, as netizens especially express concerns over copyright issues and the problems surrounding ‘deepfake’ and AI services allowing users to swop faces or generate images using people’s faces.

But other people also think that when it comes to AI generated content, the rules are vague and hard to control – and comply with. How could AI-generated content always be “true and accurate” if the prompt given by a user, for example, is to create a fairytale or other fictional content? And how does one actually measure an “addiction” to AI services if they are part of a person’s everyday workflow? Some commenters fear that the rules could be arbitrarily applied because they are so broad and general.

Then there are those who think that AI services like the American OpenAI’s ChatGPT are developing so rapidly that China is already falling behind and that, especially in the light of these rules, ChatGPT will be much stronger than Chinese equivalents.

By having to embody socialist values and stay in line with strict Cyberspace rules, chatbot services will have to stay aligned with China’s traditional media and publishers. Some Weibo commenters discuss how ChatGPT also has bias and alleged anti-China sentiments. “We’ll have to add the ‘Party spirit’ to our AI,” one person replies.

“It’s the survival of the fittest,” another commenter wrote: “If there is no innovation, they’ll be eliminated.”

For a full translation of the “Measures on the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)”, check out China Law Translate here.

By Manya Koetse , with contributions by Miranda Barnes

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