The 25th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s Return to Chinese Sovereignty on Weibo
Chinese state media push the Hong Kong anniversary narrative on Weibo: “If Hong Kong is doing well, the nation is doing well, and when the nation is good, Hong Kong is even better.”
July 1st 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty. The silver jubilee of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China was celebrated in various ways, including light shows, movie screenings, a flag-raising ceremony, and boat parades.
For the occasion, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong for two days – although he did not spend the night there – and spoke at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, praising “one country, two systems” and stressing that there is “no reason to change such a good system” and that “it must be adhered to in the long run.” During the ceremony, ex-police officer John Lee was sworn in as Hong Kong’s new chief executive.
While Chinese state media described the 25th anniversary as “festive” and “joyous,” Hong Kong Free Presswrote about “muted celebrations” and the event being overshadowed by the security blanket, media restrictions, Covid-19 concerns, and a typhoon.
On Chinese social media site Weibo, the event was completely dominated by the official narrative, and Chinese state media propagated the 25th anniversary through various hashtags and online posters.
The hashtag “Blessed Hong Kong, Blessed Motherland” (#祝福香港祝福祖国#) was initiated by CCTV and received over 189 million views. CCTV also published an online poster showing the Hong Kong skyline in the number 25.
One post by CCTV including the online poster received over 716,000 likes and more than 95,000 comments – most of them included hearts and well wishes to Hong Kong.
The hashtag “25th Annniversary of Hong Kong’s Return to the Motherland” (#香港回归祖国25周年#) received over 280 million views.
China Youth Daily initiated the “Hong Kong 25th Year Since Returning to Motherland” hashtag (#香港回归祖国25载#), while People’s Daily released a song video in cooperation with China Mobile to celebrate the event (#香港回归25周年纪念曲祝福#) featuring singer Zhou Shen (周深).
State media outlet Xinhua also released a song dedicated to the 25th anniversary. Titled “Hello Hong Kong” (你好香港), the song features the super popular mainland singer Wang Yibo (王一博). The video was reposted over a million times.
People’s Daily also published another post on July 1st, at 0:00 exactly, writing: “If Hong Kong is [doing] well, the nation is [doing] well; when the nation is good, Hong Kong is even better” (“香港好,国家好;国家好,香港更好”).
The hashtag “Ensuring That ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Is Always Heading in the Right Direction” (#确保一国两制事业始终朝着正确的方向行稳致远#) was promoted by the People’s Daily Commentary account – and even pushed to the top of the Weibo hot search lists – stressing the historical and future role of Hong Kong in ‘the great rejuvenation’ of the Chinese nation.
Meanwhile, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian (赵立坚) posted a lengthy Ministry statement on Weibo condemning some of the international responses to Hong Kong’s handover anniversary, such as that by the White House about Beijingh eliminating “any meaningful political opposition in Hong Kong and stifling dissent.”
According to the statement posted by Zhao, these kind of responses were just attempts to “smear” China’s “one country, two systems” policy and merely are meant to meddle in China internal affairs, disregarding “the basic norms of international relations.”
There was also some online controversy after Hong Kong singer and actor Jacky Cheung (张学友) cheered on Hong Kong by saying “Go Hong Kong!” [“香港加油!”] in a video celebrating the anniversary. Cheung was criticized on Chinese social media for not mentioning the “motherland” and only cheering on “Hong Kong”, with people accusing him of not being patriotic enough. The video was later taken offline.
Jacky Cheung issued a statement on July 3rd, clarifying that he is patriotic and loves Hong-Kong, and above all, is “proud to be Chinese.” That statement also went trending on Weibo (#张学友声明#), where many people also said they found the online storm over Cheung’s ‘Go Hong Kong’ comment exaggerated and unnecessary.
Some commenters wondered if all pop stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan would need to repeat “I am Chinese” all the time in order to be politically correct, avoid controversy, and avoid being accused of being a traitor. “It is a bit lamentable to force Jacky Cheung to prove his innocence like this,” one blogger wrote.
According to FreeWeibo.com, a website monitoring what gets censored on Weibo, many comments relating to ‘Hong Kong’ were censored these past few days.
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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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