On February 12, a netizen sent a notice on social media that the Dutch Embassy in China closed its official WeChat public number. The notice showed that the WeChat account of the Dutch Embassy in China was closed due to constant restrictions that prevented the embassy party from using the account effectively.
In a notice sent to followers, the Dutch Embassy in China said, “We regret to inform you that we are closing the official WeChat account of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in China. The ongoing restrictions we have experienced have prevented us from using the account effectively”.
The notice also states that the microblogging of the Embassy of the Netherlands in China is still functioning normally, except for the WeChat public account which is closed. The Dutch Embassy in China can also be contacted via Twitter, IG, Collage, etc.
The closure of the WeChat public website of the Dutch Embassy in China has caused not too much of a ripple. Some netizens commented that the official foreign accounts have been partially privileged compared to the large number of public numbers that die in battle every day, but mentioning random sensitive topics will be blocked as well, so it’s only a matter of Time before these foreign embassies’ accounts are closed, and they can be congratulated for getting out of the misery of censorship as soon as possible; other netizens said, “The Netherlands should join several countries to quit WeChat together and not give it The market”, “this is really can not tolerate the wall country censorship”.
After a search, the Voice of Hope reporter found that the last update on the microblog of the Dutch Embassy in China was on January 19 this year, about a movie by Dutch female director Maria Peters, based on the story of the first female conductor in history, which will be released on January 22. The previous microblogs with the sentencing of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan and the EU’s call for the authorities to release him, as well as the EU’s call for the immediate release of 12 Hong Kong people, are all news that the Chinese Communist authorities are trying hard to block right now. As an official account, the WeChat public website will not differ much from the content published on Weibo, and it is believed that the constant restrictions on the WeChat public website of the Dutch Embassy in China are related to its publication of the above-mentioned relevant content.
In fact, the British Embassy in China has also had a taste of censorship by WeChat. On June 19 last year, the British Embassy in China published an article entitled “Corrective Note on the Hong Kong Issue” through its WeChat public website, in which the Embassy used a question-and-answer format to explain the British position and actions on the Hong Kong issue that appeared in eight official Chinese media.
For example, in response to the Chinese media’s “Peng Peng News” claim that the UK supports “Hong Kong independence”, the British Embassy said that this is not true and that the UK clearly recognizes that Hong Kong is part of China under the framework of “one country, two systems”. The British Embassy said that this is not true and that the UK clearly recognizes that Hong Kong is part of China under the framework of “one country, two systems” and hopes that this framework will continue.
In its response to the “foreign interference that caused the protests,” the embassy said the people of Hong Kong were protesting “because they are concerned that their way of Life and high degree of autonomy are under threat” and that the suggestion that the UK or other countries had somehow organized the protests was a “false allegation. The claim that Britain or other countries had somehow organized the protests was a “false allegation.
The article was widely reposted on Chinese social media and was read by hundreds of thousands of people, with many expressing support for this form of communication and dialogue, saying that almost every statement in the article was sourced and “justified”, but the post was deleted after two hours.
The British Embassy in China expressed its dissatisfaction with WeChat’s deletion of the article and said that the content published on the account represented the British government’s position. In a statement, the embassy said it hoped that in the future it would be possible to share with the Chinese public “content on topics on which we disagree with the Chinese government without it being deleted”.
In addition to WeChat, on June 18 last year, during the tense period of the India-China standoff, the Indian Embassy in Beijing posted a response from the Indian Foreign Ministry on Weibo about the conflict between India and China, but the Weibo post disappeared shortly after it was posted. The Indian Embassy had to clarify the following day that it had not taken the initiative to delete the microblog.
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