Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying asked a rhetorical question when answering a reporter’s question on February 18, why “Chinese people are not allowed to use Twitter and Facebook”. Many people were surprised to hear this, and those who heard it were in tears.
The reason for this is that an investigation by the Associated Press in cooperation with the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think tank, has revealed that the Chinese government has been spreading a lot of false information through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, spreading rumors of a U.S.-made virus from social networks to the rest of the world.
The problem lies in Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying’s response to a related question when a reporter on Feb. 18 mentioned in an Associated Press report that “China has produced and spread stories about the U.S. making a new coronavirus as a biological weapon. And that since 2019, “the number of Chinese diplomatic accounts on Twitter and Facebook has tripled and tripled respectively”, what is China’s comment on this? Hua Chunying’s answer was described by netizens as “bursting with laughter like thunder”, why did it provoke laughter like thunder, it turns out that Hua Chunying had a reply like this.
“Speaking of the number of Twitter accounts, I wonder if they have investigated how many foreign media and diplomats use WeChat and Weibo? Why can foreigners use China’s social media platforms, but not Chinese people can use Twitter and Facebook? This is just an additional channel to share information and communicate with foreign people”.
Hua Chunying seemed naive in her question, and many netizens were surprised by the response of Hua’s spokesperson.
A netizen on the Pinnacle website wrote: “Bursting with laughter like thunder, Hua Chunying questioned the US, why can’t Chinese people use Twitter, Facebook?”
“I also want to ask ah, why Chinese people are not allowed to use Twitter and Facebook ah?”
“The party and the country are doing it for the good of the people, to keep them from the western Culture. How can you not understand that? Building the wall is also for the good of ordinary people.”
“I wonder if those who were imprisoned for eight months on Twitter for provocation and nuisance have been released?”
As we all know, in China, the use of Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. is forbidden, and the few people who try to learn about the outside world must take the risk of “going over the wall”, and if they are not careful, they will be arrested and sentenced for provocation and nuisance, as the above netizen said. However, unlike the average Chinese who cannot register for Twitter and Facebook and use Google, Chinese officials, diplomats, Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, and especially the Foreign Ministry spokesman, can register, speak, and retweet at will on Western social networks with open arms.
The AP’s aforementioned report mentions that the fake news of the Epidemic has benefited the Chinese Foreign Ministry, where officials such as Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian have accumulated more and more followers, and the number of followers on his Twitter account has skyrocketed. Zhao Lijian’s Twitter account now has about 880,000 followers. According to the report, questions have been raised about how many of these followers are real users and how many are fake accounts, which the Chinese Foreign Ministry has called unfounded speculation.
Three questions for the U.S.
Hua Chunying’s spokesperson has been particularly active in recent days. In addition to knowingly questioning why Chinese people are not allowed to use Twitter and Facebook, which sparked “thunderous laughter,” she also asked the United States three questions on Feb. 18 about the traceability of the virus, the thrust of which was to ask why The main thrust of the three questions is to ask why the United States is not open to investigation of its raw data?
WHO experts recently concluded an investigation in China, and some of them told the media upon their return that they were unable to obtain China’s raw data during the investigation.
The U.S. therefore demanded that China must provide raw data, and Secretary of State Blinken also said on the 18th that any country has to provide raw data, which means that the U.S. is no exception.
But Hua Chunying “three questions to the United States”, in the name of “international media” or “U.S. media” reports, one, reiterating what Chinese Minister Wang Yi said before the new crown virus 2019 In the second half of the year, it has already appeared in many places in the world; two, said the United States in the fall of 2019, some cases of influenza deaths, in fact, may be the new crown pneumonia; three, the United States a biological base of the problem …… Hua Chunying finally questioned: “the U.S. side can not provide all the relevant raw data? “
Analysts believe that the Chinese response is related to the WHO experts Wuhan retrospective investigation after the outside world instead caused more questions about China, dumping the U.S. and citing the U.S. media has long been publicly reported and corrected by the explanation of obsolete content, along the line of Zhao Lijian spokesman had insinuated that the U.S. military brought the virus to Wuhan conspiracy theory forward, the purpose is to divert attention. But I’m afraid it’s not effective and gives the impression of a cover-up. If Beijing wants to quell outside skepticism, it can only do so by providing raw data truthfully and allowing a truly independent international investigation, not a back-and-forth flurry of security personnel demanding a trip to the Yunnan Bat Cave that must not be met either.
“Genocidal forced labor is the lie of the century in China”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on 16 June that he was discussing with several allies in the international community whether to classify the Chinese government’s crackdown on the Uighurs in Xinjiang as “genocide.” He said the use of the word “genocide” is a very significant matter, and that the term has clear evidence in the international community. Trudeau added, “But there is no doubt that there are massive and serious human rights violations taking place in Xinjiang, China, and we are very anxious.”
European and U.S. countries, as well as numerous international NGOs, have accused Xinjiang of mass concentration of Muslims, and the U.S. State Department described the crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang as “genocide” prior to the Trump administration’s handover to Biden. Canada‘s Conservative Party is now demanding that the government include Chinese authorities’ practices in Xinjiang as “genocide,” while U.S. lawmakers have introduced a revised version of the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act, among others.
The problem is that if Beijing denies that there are no mass detentions and repression of Muslims in Xinjiang, it should open up the site to independent investigation, as the UN High Commission for Human Rights and European and American leaders, including French President Macron, have repeatedly expressed, but China has refused to allow an international independent investigation mission to go to Xinjiang.
Not only was it impossible to go to the investigation, but it was also backtracked by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who said at a Feb. 19 press conference that “genocide” and “forced labor” were the lies of the century in China, but were once a reality in Canada, the United States and Australia.
Observers commented that Hua confused history with the present, and that the international community was demanding an investigation into whether genocide and forced labor exist in Xinjiang now, while she dismissed them by saying that similar crimes existed in other countries’ history.
Exposing the “ugly history” of another country cannot hide the ongoing problems in Xinjiang, China.
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