It was a top headline on Baidu News on Saturday, March 25: while delivering a speech to the Canadian parliament on Friday, U.S. President Biden said he “applauded China for stepping up,” quickly correcting himself and saying he meant to say ‘Canada’ instead of ‘China.’

Biden was giving the speech in Ottowa during a state visit to Canada, during which the U.S. President and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau held bilateral talks discussing various security issues.

In the speech, Biden reaffirmed the strong relations between Canada and the United States.

At the moment of Biden’s gaffe, he said: “So today I applaud China for stepping up,” before correcting himself and making a quick joke: “Excuse me, I applaud Canada. You can tell what I’m thinking…about China. We won’t get into that yet.”

Ahead of the state visit, Trudeau spoke to CNN about U.S.-Canada relations and China, stating that there are areas in which they will “going to have to directly challenge China” on issues such as human rights and security. He said: “We’re going to have to continue to be wide-eyed and clear about the threat that China poses and wants to pose to the stability of our democracies.”

Regarding Biden’s gaffe, Chinese media were quick to jump on it and soon the incident spread on Weibo using various hashtags (“Biden Corrects Himself after Saying He Applauds China” #拜登称为中国鼓掌后改口#; “Biden Accidentally Says He Applauds China” #拜登口误为中国鼓掌#).

Chinese state media outlet Global Times (环球网) posted one of the most popular posts on the matter, which included a video of the moment, receiving over 82,000 likes.

But other big accounts, such as the Communist Youth League, also posted about the moment.

“Even if he dreams, he still thinks of China,” one top comment said, with others replying things such as: “He just can’t keep China out of his mouth.”

Some people also suggested it was a Freudian slip, and that Biden actually said what he was thinking: “Finally he said what he feels!” and “he loves China.”

China’s Communist Youth League also posted a meme about Biden allegedly also saying “US-China relations” instead of “US-Canada relations” during a bilateral meeting in 2021.

At one time in 2022, Biden apparently also mixed up “Ukraine” and “China” during a speech.

By now, Biden’s mix-ups and mistakes have become a regular occurrence, something that was already covered by The New York Times as early as 2019.

One meme on Chinese social media featured Joe Biden and Donald Trump side by side wearing a 1960s PLA uniform, the flag of the Communist Party in the background.

Trump was previously also jokingly called “Comrade Trump” on Chinese social media, saying he was the man “making China great again,” suggesting that his policies and actions inadvertently contributed to China’s rise. For this reason, he was also nicknamed “Build the Country Trump” (川建国) and ‘Comrade Jianguo’ (建国同志 [Comrade Build-Country]).

An older Trump meme, see Twitter thread here.

For a similar reason, Biden is now also nicknamed “Boosting China Biden” (拜振华). Both ‘Build the Country Trump’ and ‘Boosting China Biden’ are written in such ways that they could pass as Chinese names, which is part of the joke.

Some netizens playfully warned Biden and Trump about being careful not to give themselves away: “Please, comrades, be careful about hiding your true identity!”

“Comrade Boost China Biden, thanks for your hard work,” another jokingly wrote.

By Manya Koetse 

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By Manya Koetse 

With contributions by Miranda Barnes

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Hoping to attract more domestic tourists in the post-Covid-era, Chinese local government officials are trying really hard to promote their hometowns. Various tourism bureau chiefs from across China are going viral on Weibo, Douyin, and beyond for dressing up in traditional outfits and creating original videos with low to zero budget.

Another local Chinese tourism bureau chief went viral today – it’s an entire trend by itself. Tourist department offices under several local governments in China are trying really hard to promote their hometowns these days in hopes of attracting more domestic tourists in China’s post-Covid era.

Government officials are showing their best side – and their most creative one – on social media to convince tourists to visit their region. In doing so, these local bureau chiefs have been attracting online attention for appearing in promo videos in various creative ways (#为了让你去玩儿文旅局长们能有多拼#).

Since early 2020, China’s tourism industry has been heavily impacted by the pandemic and China’s strict Covid measures and lockdowns. At various moments during the pandemic, China’s domestic tourism saw an increase in holiday bookings as tourists still wanted to travel but could not easily travel abroad.

Now that China has lifted blockades on foreign travel, the post-zero-Covid itch to travel is back in full swing. As travel to other countries is seeing a boom again (while tourist visas to mainland China are still halted), local tourist offices are doing all they can with a minimal budget to encourage domestic travel to their lovely hometowns.

The trend of China’s tourist bureau chiefs finding innovative ways to promote their regions or towns via social media has been going on for some time already, but it wasn’t until recently that they really gained nationwide attention for their efforts.

The recent viral trend is not only generating more attention for the specific towns and regions promoted in the videos, it is also bringing more recognition for the drive of China’s Culture & Tourism Bureau chiefs – officials who usually rarely get the limelight. Many Chinese netizens agree that it must take a lot of talent and creativity to become a local tourism bureau chief nowadays.

Riding a horse through a windy snowy country, He Jiaolong (贺娇龙) was the first local official to feature in a social media video to promote the Yili region. The video of the vice-county head of Zhaosu, all dressed up, went viral in the winter of 2020.

Chief He later told reporters that she did not expect the video to go as viral as it did. According to Shine, He Jiaolong said: “I invited two horse lovers to help us promote local tourism on social media. We borrowed the costume from a local art troupe. They posted my horse-riding videos on Douyin and received enthusiastic responses.”

A ‘behind the scenes’ video later published on Douyin showed He falling over and battling the cold during the filming, only making the local official more popular for her dedication.

In October of 2022, Xie Wei (解伟), director of the Suizhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism in Hubei province, made headlines for his performance in videos produced and directed by himself.

As reported by South China Post, Xie made the videos himself because the local tourism bureau did not have the budget for a professional production. Although the videos made by Xie went viral, they also received some criticism because of how Xie was role-playing and dressing up as an ancient knight.

Nevertheless, Xie Wei did breathe new life into this creative approach to destination marketing, inspiring other Culture and Tourism Bureaus across China to take a similar social media strategy and join on the battleground to win over the hearts of domestic travelers.

In February of 2023, it was the bureau chief of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Tourism Office, Liu Hong (@甘孜刘洪), who went viral with various videos featuring him in traditional clothing, which earned him the nickname of “most handsome bureau chief” (“最帅局长”).

It was not the first time for Liu to star in his own tourism promotion video, as there was another video in 2022 in which he also did some cosplay to promote the Garze region (Sichuan).

Liu Hong is now known as one of China’s “celebrity tourism bureau chiefs” (网红文旅局长). The videos actually helped to promote the region but also turned Liu into a celebrity.