Category: Social Media

Inside China’s African Rail Projects: A Translator’s Unexpected Video Diary

A young Chinese man working as a bilingual English–French translator on Guinean infrastructure projects has found an unusual way to connect with Chinese youth. On the video platform Bilibili, he opened an account to document life on construction sites. To his audience’s surprise, his videos reveal rare, ...

China Sends Pointed Message with South China Sea Flag-Raising

The Chinese Coast Guard held a flag-raising ceremony to mark China’s National Day off the Scarborough Shoal, a zone in the South China Sea also claimed by the Philippines. The ceremony, which was broadcast on the state TV channel CCTV and social media, seemed designed to ...

Chinese Online Outrage Over $80 Billion Zambia River Suit

More than six months after 50,000 liters of toxic water from a Chinese-run mining site spilled into Zambia's Kafue River, there's still no resolution to what's become a massive environmental crisis.  The government is siding ...

Social Media Users Backed by the Chinese State Ensure Heated Exchange Caught on Video Stays Viral

A viral video that captured a heated exchange last week between one of China's most acclaimed foreign policy scholars and Israel's defense attaché in Beijing spiked in viewership over the weekend as ties between the countries further deteriorated. The dispute between Yan ...

Chinese Military Blogger Reviews Vietnam’s Parade on the Eve of Beijing’s Own

On the day before China’s September 3rd military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory in World War II, Vietnam staged its own large-scale celebration in Hanoi for the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day. On a Chinese WeChat public account focused on military ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

How to Lure Chinese Financing Back to the Global South: Report

Global South countries face increasing financing pressure, endangering their ability to keep developing while also implementing measures to deal with a growing climate crisis. The disruption of global trade is coupled with a larger megatrend: flows of international capital to the developing world have turned negative. This means that countries are now routinely paying more to service loans than they receive in disbursements.

The vast majority of Global South borrowers ...

A Turbulent Week for China-Africa Media Narratives

Over the past week, sharply contrasting images of Chinese engagement in Africa surfaced online. Anger erupted on social media over the release of yet another violent video that shows Congolese soldiers brutally beating local miners purportedly at the behest of Chinese ...

“1001 Days of Pouring Concrete in Africa”: A Chinese Engineer’s Memoir Sparks Debate Online

A recently published memoir titled 《在非洲打灰的1001天：一个现代化的故事》 (“1001 Days of Pouring Concrete in Africa: A Modernization Story”) has ignited widespread discussion on Chinese social media.  The author, Cao Fengze, holds a PhD in civil engineering from Tsinghua University and previously served ...

Are We Becoming Like the Taliban? Chinese Feminists Grapple with Women’s Rights, Afghanistan, and the Moral Policing

This week, a wave of outrage swept across China’s internet, not just over a university scandal, but over something deeper: growing anxiety that China’s society could be slipping toward Taliban-style moral authoritarianism. At the center of the storm was a disciplinary ...

Chinese Grad Student in India Sheds Light on How India Talks About China Behind Closed Doors

A Chinese international relations student known online as “Li Zishuo in India” has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers on Weibo and Bilibili by sharing his experiences studying at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), one of India’s most politically engaged and left-leaning campuses. His stories offer a rare ...

A Crocodile Feast in Congo Brazzaville Sparks a Cultural Reckoning on Chinese Social Media

On the bustling streets of Brazzaville’s so-called “Ghost Market,” a Chinese food vlogger nicknamed Bing Shu captured what he called the “national dish of Congo”: a fresh-killed crocodile feast, right off the street-side chopping block. His wide-eyed reactions to grilled monkeys, with teeth still intact, and bubbling ...

BYD’s Brazil Scandal Sparks Rare Self-Reflection in China

When news broke that Chinese automaker BYD was being sued in Brazil for labor violations involving over 220 Chinese workers, the reaction on Chinese social media was swift and defensive. Conspiracy theories surged—some claimed Brazilian workers were jealous, others blamed foreign interference, and a few pointed ...

Chinese Netizens View Post-Assad Syria With Distrust and Geopolitical Alarm

Last week’s U.S. move to ease sanctions on Syria made headlines in China’s state media and reignited online discussion that began last December after Syria’s government collapsed. Chinese netizens voiced distrust of the new leadership, criticized U.S. intervention, noted Russia’s fading influence, and expressed renewed appreciation for ...
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