Following the example of Zhao Lijian, the cartoon of the Chinese Embassy in Japan ridiculed American democracy but deleted itself

Following the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s war-wolf spokesman Zhao Lijian’s scandalous depiction of Japan’s nuclear waste water discharge, on the 29th the Chinese Embassy in Japan tweeted an illustration of a Grim Reaper wearing a similar US Stars and Stripes flag knocking on Egypt’s door. The post was quickly deleted a few hours later.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on the 26th of February used a famous woodblock print that mimics the Ukiyo-e to scandalize the Japanese ukiyo-e work “Kanagawa Surf Lane” and satirize the Japanese government’s decision to discharge “nuclear waste water” into the sea, scandalizing Japanese culture and undermining diplomatic etiquette. The Japanese Foreign Ministry has lodged a diplomatic protest with the Chinese side, requesting the removal of the tweet. Three days later, the Chinese Embassy in Japan followed Zhao Lijian’s example and tweeted an illustration of the Grim Reaper in the U.S. Stars and Stripes knocking on the door of “Egypt” on the evening of the 29th. The tweet reads, “If the U.S. comes with ‘democracy,’ this is how it will turn out.

According to an analysis by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, the Chinese embassy in Japan was initially influenced by President Joe Biden’s joint speech to Congress. In the speech, Biden described Chinese President Xi Jinping as an “authoritarian” and emphasized the superiority of American democracy.

In the illustration attached to this tweet from the Chinese embassy in Japan, the Grim Reaper, dressed in what looks like an American flag, passes by rooms with Iraq, Libya and Syria written on the door, with blood flowing out of the room, and the Grim Reaper is knocking on the door of the room in “Egypt.

A sharp-eyed Japanese netizen found a tweet from 2019, the illustration content is very similar to the one released by the Chinese Embassy in Japan, except that the Grim Reaper on the screen was wearing the clothes of the Chinese Communist Party’s five-star flag, knocking on the doors of rooms with the words Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and in the screen is knocking on the door of “Taiwan”.

Japanese netizens were mostly unimpressed by such tweets, with messages such as “Does this look like a tweet from the embassy?” The company’s main business is to promote the company’s products and services.

However, some eagle-eyed Japanese netizens found a tweet from 2019, the illustration content is very similar to the one released by the Chinese Embassy in Japan, except that the image of the Grim Reaper was wearing the clothes of the Chinese Communist Party’s five-star flag, knocking on the door of the room written Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, the image is knocking on the door of “Taiwan”.

Some netizens ridiculed the Chinese embassy in Japan: “It’s really a veritable copycat country, even the embassy’s tweet illustration can be copied and imitated”.