Think about China and images of flashy skyscrapers, wide roads and super-fast trains would crop up in your mind. No disrespect to the phenomenal growth trajectory that the communist nation has achieved over the past two decades, but the truth is that China has always exported a distorted and censored version of its society to the world. This again became evident with recent media reports showing how Chinese authorities are clamping down on videos showing poverty in China on the Chinese internet.
China bans videos showing ‘sadness’
According to a report by New York Times, the Cyberspace Administration of China in March announced that it will punish anyone who publishes videos or posts “deliberately manipulate sadness, incite polarization, create harmful information that damages the image of the Party and the government, and disrupts economic and social development.”
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In simple terms, showing people facing difficulties, sadness and old and disabled children on the Chinese internet effectively became a criminal offence.
Several videos removed from Internet
Recently, a content creator named Mr Hu interviewed a 78-year-old Chinese widow in the southwestern city of Chengdu. The video showed the woman struggling to buy rice with tears rolling down her cheeks. Guess what happened later; not only the video was removed from the internet, but Mr Hu’s account was also permanently banned from the two biggest video platforms in China.
Similarly, a thread on Zhihu, or ‘Chinese Quora’, was censored where people were discussing poverty in China. One Chinese user wrote while discussing the poverty censorship in China, “Because theoretically there’s no poor people in China.” Another user wrote, “Because this society only allows you to celebrate prosperity. You have to shoulder all the sufferings yourself and not share them online.”
Why is China censoring its poor?
China is censoring its poor simply because it dents the Communist Party of China’s reputation. The CCP prides itself on poverty elimination and cites it to legitimise its rule over the nation. In 2021, CCP’s secretary and China’s President Xi Jinping launched the “common prosperity” programme, which celebrated China’s “comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty.”
So, any such video emerging on the internet showing poor people in China struggling to make both ends meet runs contrary to the hefty claims made by the CCP. That explains why China is punishing those who dare talk about poverty in China.
