Earlier in September, Syrian President Assad and his wife arrived in Hangzhou before the start of the Asian Games. On September 24, they traveled to Beijing.

There was one person who did not leave the side of Syria’s first lady and who captured significant attention on Chinese social media over the past few days: the Chinese female bodyguard accompanying Asma al-Assad.

The ‘beautiful bodyguard’ accompanying the first lady from the start to the end of her China visit. Images via Xinhua.

Photos and videos of the bodyguard soon spread all over Weibo and on other Chinese social media platforms, where people praised her for her beauty (she looks a bit like Chinese actress Zhao Liying) and dashing posture (“英姿飒爽”), her “eyes blazing like torches” (“目光如炬”), her composed demeanor, and the glimpse she offered into China’s secret service.

The online fascination with the female bodyguard is about more than the combination of her charming looks and professional demeanor; it also related to the gender dynamics of a woman working in a typically male-dominated field.

There is also a nationalistic element to it, and a sense of pride in China welcoming Assad within the context of China as a new world leader. This trip marked Assad’s first venture outside the Middle East since the Syrian crisis began in 2011, and it is his first visit to China since 2004. Syria joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in January 2022.

Some netizens focused on scrutinizing the bodyguard’s appearance, analyzing her outfit and hands to find out more about the protocol and training involved.

For example, some observers noticed that the buttons on her suit jacket were uneven, – the left side of her suit jacket’s buttons were noticeably lower than the right side, – speculating that she might have some kind of weapon concealed in her inside pocket. Leaving the jacket unbuttoned might enable her to go from reaching inside to firing in just a few seconds.

Eye for detail, image by @大A小雷哥.

Others noted how her hand joints appeared thicker than the average woman’s, suggesting that she has undergone extensive training.

One blogger (@诤言无昧) reported that the bodyguard, who gained overnight fame this week, is Yan Yuexia (严月霞). Yan is said to be a special Zhongnanhai foreign guest agent for the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

The same blogger also claims that Yan is trained in diplomatic etiquette, foreign languages, combat, shooting, driving, riot control, swimming, water rescue, and more.

According to Taiwan news outlet United Times, Yan Yuexia was trained in martial arts since she was young.

After graduating from the People’s Public Security University of China, she passed the assessment for the ‘Security Guard Bureau’ of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (中共中央办公厅警卫局), earning her position as one of the close protection personnel for China’s national-level leaders and becoming a staff member at the Foreign Affairs Security Bureau’s ‘Foreign Guest Protection Department’ (特勤局外宾警卫).

She is an unexpected viral sensation in light of the China visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and wife; the Chinese special agent and female bodyguard who accompanied them during their various activities in China. pic.twitter.com/lPQDEKjxc6

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) September 27, 2023

It is not the first time that someone working within China’s highest diplomatic circles becomes a viral sensation in China. Besides the popularity of China’s diplomats themselves (read), those working ‘behind the scenes’ are often also greatly admired.

One example is interpreter Zhang Jing (张京), who joined the U.S.-China strategic talks in Anchorage in 2021. She gained popularity and respect for her composed and professional translation of China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi’s (杨洁篪) lengthy speech directed at American Secretary Blinken and National Security Advisor Sullivan. Even during challenging moments, she stayed focused and wasn’t hesitant to suggest that she translate first before moving on to the next speaker.

For many younger netizens, these women, both in terms of their intelligence, strength, and composure, along with their good looks, serve as role models and a source of inspiration.

“I admire her strength,” some commenters write about Yan Yuexia. There are also those, however, who are concerned that the bodyguard’s newfound popularity could jeopardize her status as a secret agent. Some have very different concerns, asking: “I wonder what it would take to marry her?”

By Manya Koetse

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There is a lot of Apple anger on Chinese social media this week. Two separate trending topics have ignited discussions. One revolves around Chinese actor Liu Jin, who smashed his iPhone 13 Pro Max in front of the Apple flagship store, while another one centers on an image of an Apple employee deemed inappropriate by Chinese netizens. But both viral trends have unfolded with surprisingly ‘juicy’ twists.

The Chinese actor Liu Jin (刘金) has become a big topic of discussion on Chinese social media this week for a remarkable statement he made in a 2-minute video that has gone viral.

The ‘statement video’ shows the actor angrily throwing his iPhone 13 Pro Max on the ground until it breaks, right in front of the Wangfujing Apple flagship store in Beijing, pledging he will never buy another Apple product again and accusing the company of being arrogant and overbearing after running into some repair issues.

Liu Jin is an actor who played in various productions, but he made his major breakthrough in 2015 when he played in the Chinese CCTV series Don’t Let me See (别让我看见) and in the successful comedy movie Goodbye Mr Loser (夏洛特烦恼).

This was not the only Apple incident going viral on Chinese social media this week. Another trending topic revolves around actor Liu Jin, who angrily smashed his iPhone 13 Pro Max in front of the Apple flagship store in Beijing. (Caps autogenerated, but you get the idea.) pic.twitter.com/MdPvnKqh1T

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) September 19, 2023

In the video, recorded on September 17, Liu explains he just visited the Apple store to get his iPhone back after bringing it in for repair. Liu claimed that he bought his iPhone 13 Pro Max in August of 2022 through the official store and that, after a year, it had a hardware problem that needed to be fixed.

From the video by Liu.

According to Liu, the Apple store has now returned the iPhone to him without repairing it, saying that the phone was “modified without authoritization” by a third party, and that Liu should pay a 6,960 yuan ($950) fee to get it fixed.

Refusing to pay such an amount of money, and denying he got the phone through a third party, Liu then smashes the iPhone on the ground until it is broken, promising never to buy Apple again.

A hashtag related to the video was viewed a staggering 270 million times on Weibo, where it became a top trending topic (#演员刘金苹果店前怒摔iphone#).

 
Apple vs Huawei Rivalry
 

The actor’s recent actions have garnered considerable attention, primarily because they coincide with the escalating rivalry between Huawei and Apple. This rivalry has become a prominent topic of discussion in China recently, due to various things coming together at the same time.

Notably, Apple unveiled its iPhone 15 shortly after Huawei introduced its latest flagship, the Mate 60 Pro 5G. Noteworthy enough (and unlikely coincidentally),it was launched on the same date as the return of Huawei executive daughter Meng Wanzhou from Canada in 2021 (read here).

The official launch ceremony for Huawei’s new products is coming up on September 25, and people are hoping to find out more about the powerful Kirin 90000s chip that is being used by Huawei despite facing heavy US sanctions regarding Chinese access to crucial chip technology.

Simultaneously, reports emerged about alleged Chinese restrictions on iPhones within government and state agencies, resulting in a significant decline in Apple’s stock value. The Foreign Ministry later stated that that China has actually not issued any law, regulation, or policy document to ban the use of Apple phones.

All of these developments have reignited the ongoing tech giant competition in China, that is now about much more than smartphones alone and has come to symbolize geopolitical rivalry, encompassing themes of nationalism, anti-Western sentiments, and a growing sense of pride in products made in China.

 
Much Ado about Apple Employee Photo
 

As Liu’s phone-smashing video went viral, so did another controversy concerning an Apple customer service employee’s photo depicted on the official website of Apple.

A Chinese netizen pointed out that a photo of an Apple Watch Specialist representative on the Apple site may have been purposely “insulting China” (辱华) due to the appearance of the person in the photo.

Initially, many people thought the image was specifically used on the Chinese-language Apple site, and that it concerned a Chinese individual with a hairstyle that resembles a queue: a single long braid of hair that was traditionally worn by male subjects of China during the Qing.

Some people also thought the individual had a pockmark near the mouth and that their looks reinforces stereotypes surrounding Chinese appearances regarding eyes and forehead. The image therefore sparked wide-spread resistance among netizens who thought Apple deliberately and inappropriately used such an image to show Chinese individuals as being backward and unattractive.

online poll with nearly 198,000 likes on Weibo, asking if this photo is appropriate or not (the majority voted that the photo was not appropriate).

On the same day as Liu’s video first came out, September 17, the topic of the “braid-wearing customer service representative” went trending, and the hashtag of “how do you feel about the Apple China website image of the braided customer service representative” (#如何看苹果中国官网辫子客服形象#) has since received over 200 million views on Weibo.

Political commentator Hu Xijin (胡锡进) also responded to the issue, explaining how the Chinese people are particularly sensitive to issues related to “perceived insults to China by Westerners,” due to historical and cultural factors which are further amplified by current tensions in US-China and broader China-Western relations.

Hu therefore argues that “American and Western companies should be more careful and cautious when promoting their products and try to avoid using images and texts that could be misinterpreted by Chinese people.”¹

 
Who’s the Bad Apple?
 

But to what extent is criticism of Apple reasonable in both incidents?

In the case of the “braid-wearing customer service representative”, it soon triggered a response from Apple’s customer service (#苹果客服回应辫子客服形象#, hashtag with 180 million views) and led to more information.

It has since become evident that many assumptions about the image were unfounded. Contrary to the initial belief that the photo was exclusive to the Chinese page, it was also featured on Apple’s official websites in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and other countries.

Furthermore, it was revealed that the Apple employee in question is not of Chinese descent at all; she is a Native American female employee (also see Wen Hao’s post on this). Additionally, the perceived pockmark near her mouth was, in fact, a piercing.

In response to this, some people mocked Hu Xijin for how he responded to the controversy.

Photoshop meme mocking Hu Xijin.

But Liu’s video also turns out to be a bit different than the version of the story he presented.

The actor seemed to voice a popular public sentiment by taking a stand against Apple’s dominant position, that rivals that of China’s tech darling Huawei, by smashing an Apple smartphone in public.

But where is the proof that Liu actually bought his iPhone at an Apple store in 2022? Where is the receipt showing that his phone was indeed not coming from a third party that might have modified it?

To the dismay of many netizens, the actor refused to show the official store receipt of his Apple phone, and many people started to doubt if the actor might have just put on a show to gain attention at a critical moment in the market competition between Apple and Huawei.

Moreover, the actor’s story seemed even less credible when he tried to further explain it in a recent social media post.

Why?

As many netizens noted: the post he sent was actually sent from an iPhone.

By Manya Koetse

¹ “(..)一些国人在西方人“辱华”的问题上很敏感，有其真实的历史和文化原因。目前中美关系很紧张，中西关系也不如过去，美国和西方公司在做产品宣传时，多一些细心、谨慎，尽量不要选用有可能引发中国人误解的图文，这是他们开展跨文化交流时一份应有的素养和水平。”

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