As China’s 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is around the corner, hashtags and online posters about the upcoming major political event are already dominating Chinese social media.
Among those is People’s Daily‘s “Hello, 20th Party Congress” (#你好二十大#), a hashtag that is used to explain the basics surrounding the Party Congress that will start on October 16, 10:00, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Instead of using one centralized hashtag, various official media are using different hashtags to promote their own reports about the Party Congress. The People’s Liberation Army Daily (解放军报), for example, uses the “Welcome to the 20th National Congress” (#喜迎二十大#) hashtag while Communist Youth League uses their own “The Youth is Watching 20th Party Congress” (#青年看二十大#) hashtag.
China’s Party Congress (中国共产党全国代表大会, commonly called 党代会 dǎngdàihuì in Chinese), is held every five years and this is the moment when key decisions for China are discussed and officially announced.
At the last Congress in 2017, Xi Jinping was formally granted a second term, and he also held a three-and-a-half-hour speech on “Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” (新时代中国特色社会主义思想) in front of on a podium before 2300 delegates, presenting the Party’s new concepts, thoughts and strategies.
Since the 19th Party Congress was all about China’s “New Era,” the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party is now presented as one that takes place at a critical moment that determines the direction of this new road to China’s ‘rejuvenation.’
At this year’s event, Xi Jinping is expected to secure his third five-year term. In March of 2018, a constitutional amendment that allows Xi Jinping to rule beyond 2023 was passed.
One infographic shared by People’s Daily gives an overview of the growing number of representatives at the Party congresses from 1921 to the present.
At the time of the first congress in Shanghai and Jiaxing in 1921, the Communist Party only had around 50 members. A year later, the newly-established Party held its second Congress in Shanghai attended by 12 representatives, representing 195 members of the Chinese Communist Party. Now, a century later, 2296 delegates will represent over 96 million members of the Chinese Communist Party.
Another related hashtag initiated by People’s Daily on Weibo is the 20th Party Congress Vlog (#二十大代表vlog#), presenting delegates through video.
One of them is Na Bao (娜保) from the Yunnan Lahu ethnic group; she is one of the female delegates and is a local traditional musician.
Communist Party congress delegates include ethnic minorities, farmers, and ‘model’ workers, and various of them are highlighted in videos and interviews and promoted on Chinese social media (#二十大代表风采#).
Besides highlighting the congress delegates, the image of Xi Jinping as a leader of the people is also pushed by official media, with Xi’s slogan “ready to give up the self to serve the people” (“我将无我,不负人民”) being reiterated by Global Times and People’s Daily.
In light of the upcoming congress, China Post will issue special commemorative stamps and a souvenir set on October 16. The stamps are titled “Striving for a New Journey” (奋进新征程) and “Building a New Era” (建功新时代) (#二十大纪念邮票10月16日发行#).
Special stamp issued for the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
It is clear that social media and online state media channels are in full ‘Party mode’. As around every major political event in China, this means that state media and government social media accounts are focused on disseminating the official propaganda surrounding the event, including videos, interviews, infographics, images, slogans, articles, and songs.
At the same time, social media users are also experiencing a stricter control on information flows; despite official media reports about the upcoming Party Congress flooding Weibo, the discussions surrounding the event are severely limited. Even the posts about the special stamps had their comment sections closed.
On Thursday, just two days before the congress, two protest banners denouncing Xi Jinping and China’s zero Covid policy appeared at the Sitong Bridge in Beijing before being removed. Any mention of the incident was quickly censored on Chinese social media. WeChat users who mentioned the Sitong Bridge incident saw their accounts blocked and Wechat groups were shut down for discussing the protest.
Please check in with us again this week as we will keep an eye on social media trends surrounding the event. Don’t forget to subscribe. For previous posts on the Party Congress, check here.
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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.
The Dutch general elections on Tuesday, November 2022, resulted in a victory for the right-wing Freedom Party (PVV). The party, established in 2006, is led by the 60-year-old Dutch politician Geert Wilders who is known for his outspoken populist rhetoric and anti-establishment sentiments.
On Chinese social media, the Dutch election outcome became a topic discussed by some well-known bloggers.
The PVV secured 37 of the 150 seats in the Second Chamber, making it the largest party by a significant margin, followed by the left-wing Groen Links-PvdA (25 seats), center-right liberal VVD (24), and the brand-new centrist party NSC (20). The remaining seats were distributed among eleven other parties, each claiming between 9 and 1 seat in the Second Chamber.
Wilders’ triumph garnered international attention. As reported in 2017, the PVV’s popularity had been steadily increasing for years, drawing particular notice in Chinese media and other international publications in the wake of Trump’s victory and Brexit.
Dutch politician Wilders, referred to as Wéi’ěrdésī (维尔德斯 or 威尔德斯) in Chinese, became a recurring subject in Chinese media, with his success viewed as a harbinger for other elections across Continental Europe.
Wilders and his PVV are known for their strong anti-Islam stance, Euroskepticism, aspirations to significantly limit immigration, and populist commitment to “put the Dutch first.”
On Weibo, the well-known Chinese political commentator Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) wrote a column about Wilders’ win on November 23. Here’s a translation of Hu’s post:
“It shocked Europe, it shocked the West! The Freedom Party led by Wilders, the ‘Dutch version of Trump,’ received the most votes on Wednesday. His slogans and labels are anti-immigrant, anti-Europe, anti-Islam. The leader of the French extreme right-wing political party Le Pen immediately extended his congratulations through social media.”
“The results of the Dutch elections again show that xenophobic and intolerant political retrogressions are like cancer cells spreading across Europe and the West. However, the far-right line will not become the overwhelming new political choice in the West, as many Western societies are painfully going from side to side. Wilders also proposes that the Netherlands should stop providing weapons to the Ukraine, which goes against the mainstream European line. This is something that should be quite popular among Chinese.”
“It’s not clear yet if Wilders will actually become the premier of the Netherlands. Although his party received the most votes he only took about 37 seats of the 150 seats in the Dutch House of Representatives and will need to form a coalition government. Because it’s an extreme rightwing party, whether or not he will be able to pull allies in is hard to say. If Wilders fails, the Netherlands will not rule out a minority government.”
“Regardless, the victory of the Freedom Party is a heavy blow to Europe. There are concerns that it will become a model, that it will boost the rise of other extreme right-wing parties on the stage. In short, the West is becoming more and more chaotic and is becoming more lost.”
On Weibo, Hu Xijin’s post about Wilders received hundreds of replies, but many netizens did not agree with his stance on the victory of the Dutch right-wing party.
“You don’t represent the Chinese people,” one commenter wrote: “You just represent yourself. Don’t overstep your boundaries.”
“You’re actually so leftist underneath,” another reply said.
“Why did we witness a UK ‘Trump,’ a Brazilian ‘Trump,’ an Argentinian ‘Trump,’ a Dutch ‘Trump’?”
Among the numerous comments below Hu’s post, quite a few expressed sympathy for the populist stance advocated by PVV and Wilders. One popular comment reads, “Anti-immigration, anti-EU, anti-Islamic—sounds about right?” “Europe is waking up.”
Another person commented: “Over the past couple of years, the population of Muslim immigrants in Europe and the United States has been rapidly expanding, bringing about serious social problems when it comes to public security, employment, fertility rates, and religious beliefs etc., which has since long been a source of distress for the local population.”
Apart from Hu’s post, Chinese netizens elsewhere on Weibo have also placed Wilders’ victory in a broader geopolitical context. Blogger Xiaosunchu (@小笋初) writes, “Why did America have Trump? Why did we witness a UK ‘Trump,’ a Brazilian ‘Trump,’ an Argentinian ‘Trump,’ a Dutch ‘Trump,’ and so on – all these non-traditional, anti-establishment ‘crazy’ candidates?”
According to Xiaochunchu, the election of these kinds of political figures is a result of a so-called ‘democratic illusion’ (“民主幻觉”) in the West, in which voters are perpetually disappointed in politicians as they end up getting “a different broth but the same old medicine” (“换汤不换药”): the names may change, but the system does not, leading voters to blame themselves for picking the wrong candidates when, in reality, it’s actually deep-rooted political structures that prevent actual change from happening.
Regardless of whether others agree with Xiaochunchu’s idea that voters’ preference for unconventional political figures is linked to a ‘democratic illusion,’ many do acknowledge that ‘Trump-style’ politics represents a broader political trend that began with the election of Donald Trump in 2016.
Other bloggers called the election of different ‘Trumps’ a “new change in global democratic politics” and even labeled the current international political arena the “Trump era” (“特朗普时代”). “Who’s next?” one Weibo user wonders.
“Let’s wait and see,” other people write, “It might not be easy for him to form a cabinet.”
While the Dutch formation has begun, the world will be watching to see which parties will govern together and whether Wilders might become the next Dutch Prime Minister, and the so-called ‘next Trump.’
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The introduction of a Douyin novel feature, that would enable content creators to impose a fee for accessing their short video content, has sparked discussions across Chinese social media. Although the feature would benefit creators, many Douyin users are skeptical.
News that Chinese social media app Douyin is rolling out a new feature which allows creators to introduce a paywall for their short video content has triggered online discussions in China this week.
The feature, which made headlines on November 16, is presently in the testing phase. A number of influential content creators are now allowed to ‘paywall’ part of their video content.
Douyin is the hugely popular app by Chinese tech giant Bytedance. TikTok is the international version of the Chinese successful short video app, and although they’re often presented as being the same product, Douyin and Tiktok are actually two separate entities.
In addition to variations in content management and general usage, Douyin differs from TikTok in terms of features. Douyin previously experimented with functionalities such as charging users for accessing mini-dramas on the platform or the ability to tip content creators.
The pay-to-view feature on Douyin would require users to pay a certain fee in Douyin coins (抖币) in order to view paywalled content. One Douyin coin is equivalent to 0.1 yuan ($0,014). The platform itself takes 30% of the income as a service charge.
According to China Securities Times or STCN (证券时报网), Douyin insiders said that any short video content meeting Douyin’s requirements could be set as “pay-per-view.”
Creators, who can set their own paywall prices, should reportedly meet three criteria to qualify for the pay-to-view feature: their account cannot have any violation records for a period of 90 days, they should have at least 100,000 followers, and they have to have completed the real-name authentication process.
On Douyin and Weibo, Chinese netizens express various views on the feature. Many people do not think it would be a good idea to charge money for short videos. One video blogger (@小片片说大片) pointed out the existing challenge of persuading netizens to pay for longer videos, let alone expecting them to pay for shorter ones.
“The moment I’d need to pay money for it, I’ll delete the app,” some commenters write.
This statement appears to capture the prevailing sentiment among most internet users regarding a subscription-based Douyin environment. According to a survey conducted by the media platform Pear Video, more than 93% of respondents expressed they would not be willing to pay for short videos.
An online poll by Pear Video showed that the majority of respondents would not be willing to pay for short videos on Douyin.
“This could be a breaking point for Douyin,” one person predicts: “Other platforms could replace it.” There are more people who think it would be the end of Douyin and that other (free) short video platforms might take its place.
Some commenters, however, had their own reasons for supporting a pay-per-view function on the platform, suggesting it would help them solve their Douyin addiction. One commenter remarked, “Fantastic, this might finally help me break free from watching short videos!” Another individual responded, “Perhaps this could serve as a remedy for my procrastination.”
As discussions about the new feature trended, Douyin’s customer service responded, stating that it would eventually be up to content creators whether or not they want to activate the paid feature for their videos, and that it would be up to users whether or not they would be interested in such content – otherwise they can just swipe away.
Another social media user wrote: “There’s only one kind of video I’m willing to pay for, and it’s not on Douyin.”
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