The top 10 Weibo posts on international affairs censored by China in 2016

Twelve months before these documents were released, an enormous package of documents from an anonymous source was sent to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). In the 2.6 TB package, 11.5 million documents, including 4.8 million emails, 3 million database files, 2 million PDF files and many files, came from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in Panama.

This collection of documents is commonly referred to as the Panama Papers. Over 100 media outlets and more than 400 journalists all over the world formed a special investigative team to study the data.

A list of prominent political figures, celebrities, smugglers, gangs and underworld organisations were found on the list. Iceland’s former prime minister Sigmundur and his wife established an offshore company called Wintris Inc to evade taxes; Vladimir Putin’s two close friends Sergey Roldugin and Yuri Kovalchuk established several offshore companies and received nearly US$2 billion in loans through the Mossack Fonseca law firm from banks including the Bank of Russia.

Family members of Chinese leaders Xi Jinping, Zhang Gaoli and Liu Yunshan were named in the documents, but interestingly, the censored Weibo post and the attached picture did not mention any of the Chinese leaders’ names, or their family members.

2) 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit

Posted on August 3, 2016, 17:21:44; generated at least 34,444 reposts in 3 hours and 15 minutes.

In this screenshot, a WeChat user complained about the strict security subway control almost two weeks before the G20 summit in Hangzhou held from September 4-5, 2016. She said that even her hair bun was pinched to check if there was anything hidden inside. Two people replied with laughter.

In addition to this incident, many Internet users criticised the government for going too far beyond what was necessary in order to maintain a good image, including closing off a famous lakeside area to the public and banning all civil society activities in Hangzhou.

3) China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi

Posted on July 15, 2016, 22:20:06; generated at least 9,309 reposts in 1 hour and 36 minutes.

This picture shows the main character of Little Dragon Man, a Chinese fairytale play for children. Some people say that the child looks very similar to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, especially their mouths, which both curve down at the corners.

4) India-Russia relations

Posted on September 6, 2016, 19:01:49; generated at least 25,528 reposts in 5 hours and 5 minutes.

This Weibo user infers that in the picture, when shaking hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Putin seems to be smiling reluctantly. Similar pictures of Narendra Modi shaking hands with other world leaders and public figures have been highlighted before, including China’s President Xi Jinping and the United Kingdom’s Prince William (see this story, for example).

5) Philippines anti-China protest

Posted on July 12, 2016, 13:31:06; generated at least 28,383 reposts in 5 hours and 40 minutes.

The photo shows a protester in the Philippines holding a sign that reads “South China Sea Does not Belong to China” in both English and Chinese. However, in the Chinese version, the South China Sea is referred to as “中国南海” (In English, “China’s South Sea”), which means the exact opposite of the theme of the demonstration.

The Weibo user picks out this contradiction and uses the term “Little Phiphi” to mock the protester, inferring that the Philippines’ claim to the South China Sea is unreasonable and reveals a nationalistic viewpoint.

6) North Korea crisis

Posted on November 10, 2016, 12:51:36; generated at least 22,544 reposts in 7 hours and 23 minutes.

This is a report on Sohu News entitled “China and the U.S. have agreed about sanctions on North Korea. ‘Xin Fat’ may be heading for a devastating disaster.” In the screenshot, Sohu (upper) and “Xin Fat” (lower) are circled.

The Chinese character xin (鑫) is composed by three separate “Kim” characters. Therefore, “xin fat” means “three kim fat,” which is a variation of “jin san pang” or “Kim Fatty the Third,” a nickname referring to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Chinese Internet users tacitly regard Kim’s grandfather and father as “Fatty the First” and “Fatty the Second,” poking fun at the family’s heredity. Considering the average living conditions in North Korea, the joke about Kim’s obesity is also with a note of sarcasm regarding the regime.

According to this news report, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang said in November that any nickname of a foreign leader that has insulting and mocking remarks is prohibited. When “Kim Fatty the Third” was banned on the Internet, people then started to create its derivatives to bypass the censorship, such as “Xin (Three Kim) Fat” or “Kim Fat Fat Fat.”

Sohu literally means “searching fox” in Chinese. This Weibo user intends to comment that Sohu is amazing for having published such a piece of news, by modifying trendy Internet slang term “you’re awesome, my bro” into “you’re awesome, my fox” for hilarious effect.

7) Sina and Taiwan independence

Posted on January 15, 2016, 20:31:14; generated at least 26,166 reposts in 14 hours 11 minutes.

This censored Weibo post was published one day before Taiwan’s 2016 general election, presenting anger toward Sina’s various activities related to the support of Taiwan’s secession. The post accuses Sina of treating Taiwan as an independent country on the new user registration page (as shown in the picture) and blocking posts that are related to Taiwan independence. It also claims that Webber Cheng, the head of the entertainment department at Weibo’s Taiwan bureau, is a secession supporter.

Many more Weibo users echo the same nationalistic sentiment, generating more than 300 original Weibo posts that include the tag #Sina deletes Taiwan secession-related content from its “Hot Topics” section. A stance toward secession or independence of Taiwan is the one of the worst offences to many Chinese web users, and their anger could bring catastrophic losses to anyone attempting to do business in or with China. One of the recent examples is Chou Tzu-yu, a teenage Taiwanese pop star in a Korean band who was forced to apologise for holding a Taiwanese flag.

8) 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes

Posted on April 17, 2016, 10:48:21; generated at least 9,051 reposts in 5 hours and 16 minutes.

In this photo, the LED sign displayed outside a shop, the name of which is cropped out, says “to celebrate the big earthquake in Japan, all purchases in our shop in three days…”

The end of the sentence is not shown, but it is plausible to infer that this is a discount or sale promotion. It is likely that the sign refers to the earthquakes that took place in Kumamoto, Japan on April 16. The magnitude of the main shock reached 7.0. As of August 14, 2016, the death toll was reported as 50.

9) Cross-strait relations

Posted on July 4, 2016, 08:53:53; generated at least 20,339 reposts in 11 hours 55 minutes.

This photo is a screenshot of a Facebook post showing an imaginary timeline of a war between mainland China and Taiwan. It depicts the victory of Taiwan over southern China in abundant detail.

The trigger of this fictional war is based on a real incident which happened on July 1, in which a Taiwanese warship mistakenly fired a missile toward China. The supersonic missile hit a Taiwanese fishing boat near the Penghu islands, killing one person and injuring three. The censored Weibo post doesn’t seem to appreciate the masterplan.

10) Facebook and Taiwan independence

Posted on January 16, 2016, 23:05:28; generated at least 22,071 reposts in 13 hours 47 minutes.

The rabbit shown in the screenshot is called Machiko. It is a cartoon character created by Yukiji, a Taiwanese painter. Machiko stickers are sold by the LINE Store, and are very popular among Chinese web users, especially on WeChat and Weibo. The censored Weibo post was posted on the day of Taiwan’s 2016 general election.

Conclusion

We hope that these examples of Weibo censorship in 2016 have provided useful insights into at least a few foreign affairs topics that China’s Internet regulators deemed too sensitive or volatile. Based on three of the posts, it is straightforward to conclude that cross-strait affairs remained a clear taboo in public discussion, and that no talk of Taiwan independence or secession (post 7 and 10, let alone the prospect of the Republic of China’s invasion of the mainland, post 9) is allowed.

When it came to posts that featured world leaders and diplomats, criticism or potential loss of face was not taken lightly. We saw how a blogger’s introduction to the leaked Panama Papers (post 1), which incriminated numerous public figures across the globe, was promptly removed. Even the light-hearted jabs at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and those who endured the perceived excess of his handshake were not tolerated by China’s Internet censors (post 4). It is more understandable to see why regulators would have had issue with comments on Kim Jong-un’s body shape (post 6), as well as the observed parallel between the facial features of China’s foreign minister and a well-known child fantasy character (post 3).

However, we cannot simply assume that instances of Weibo censorship reflect the government’s effort to portray the ruling Communist Party in a positive light, or promote nationalist sentiment. A post that mocked the contradiction of a Filipino protester, who objected to Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, was also taken down (post 5). Furthermore, the removal of a photo that seemed to celebrate the Kumamoto earthquake (post 8) suggests that the authorities did not condone insensitivity regarding a significant humanitarian crisis for Japan, which is often portrayed in Chinese media as the country’s perennial enemy.

While this report may not be able to offer a definitive guide to the international affairs topics which were off limits last year, it raises important questions. For instance, what are the boundaries of humour when discussing foreign and domestic politicians on Chinese social media? And perhaps a more intriguing yet difficult question: what is China trying to portray to the world about its online community through its censorship decisions?

Methodology

Weiboscope at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, the University of Hong Kong, has been collecting censored Weibo posts since 2011 and is providing data to media outlets for story-making and news gathering (last year’s report).

About 120,000+ Chinese Weibo accounts were tracked by the system throughout the year and their censored posts recorded and analysed. Then the top 100 most “influential” censored posts, in other words, those retweeted the most in the shortest period of time (according to a ratio of retweet count per “survival time”), were chosen.

We purposely selected 10 posts (in descending order of retweet count per “survival time”) which are all related to international affairs, showing a robust discussion of “forbidden” global issues among Chinese Internet users and reflecting China’s involvement in international affairs as a “global power.”

The Weiboscope team consists of Chung-hong Chan (PhD candidate), King-wa Fu (Associate Professor), Jinshan Hong (Bachelor of Journalism student), Jonas Kelsch (Master of Journalism student), Yujing Liu (Bachelor of Journalism student), and Yuwei Liu (Bachelor of Journalism student).