China's top social media companies have condemned online hate speech targeting Japanese, delivering a vigorous response to comments triggered by a knife attack last week that killed one person and injured a Japanese mother and child.
Such waves of sentiment, and a vocal nationalist element, are not uncommon, but companies from WeChat-owner Tencent, to TikTok's ByteDance-owned sister-site Douyin, Weibo and NetEase, condemned last week's remarks.
"These comments have disrupted the positive and peaceful atmosphere of the platform and even incited unlawful behavior," Douyin said in an online post on Sunday, citing "extreme and erroneous statements" that were "promoting xenophobia".
In the latest of a series of knife attacks nationwide, a Japanese mother and her pre-schooler were injured in the eastern city of Suzhou while waiting for a school bus. A Chinese bus attendant died of injuries suffered during a bid to intervene.
Anti-Japanese sentiment in China stems from bitter memories of the neighbor's World War II aggression, leading some to celebrate the targeting of its citizens in the attack.
The extreme comments on Douyin stood out from the flood of tributes that praised the heroism of the 55-year-old bus attendant, Hu Youping, it added.
Tencent said it had tackled 836 instances of related content that infringed its rules.
"Some netizens incited confrontation between China and Japan, provoked extreme nationalism, and concocted various extreme remarks online," it said in online comments on Saturday.
State media also condemned the online hate speech.
"We will also not accept the hype of 'xenophobia' and hate speech by individuals," the government-controlled People's Daily said in an editorial on Friday. "This is unacceptable to mainstream Chinese society and us Chinese."
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
22 Comments
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Fighto!
A good number of Chinese people are truly warped, bitter and twisted.
Those who celebrated this attack on innocent children and women are vermin - and should be dealt with as such.
isabelle
Well, stop promoting it as CCP policy then.
Or perhaps they mean it's okay for the Chinese government, but not for "individuals." Probably.
Mat
They have complete control of the platform, so they can just take down all the posts, and block keywords.
Mark
such crocodile tears
happyhere
There is hate speech on many social networks. The fact that those Chinese networks are actively taking down those posts, a small minoriy, is very positive and heartening.
But no, the golden rule among the commentators here is: China bad.
BertieWooster
happyhere,
It sickens me too. Knee jerk reaction by those who have swallowed the propaganda.
Now that's real irony!
WiseOneIn Kansai
The CCP never takes responsibility for any wrong doing by its policies.
The anti-Japanese sentiment is promoted by the fake facts that the CCP provides about the treated water released from Fukushima including the ban on seafood products.
It's the Chinese social media companies taking action against hate speech.
But not a peep from the CCP government!!
Michael Gnaegi
Chinese government realised that anti foreigner and hate speech is bad for business and foreign direct investments. Seems they directed the social media companies to voice concerns in order not to disturb the inflow of capital further
Nibek32
The CCP has been preaching every country in the world is the boogey man, except Russia and North Korea, but especially Japan and the US. Why are they not surprised by this? Their people are brainwashed as all they see is what the CCP feeds them and tells them what to think.
Daninthepan
A really irresponsible article. Nowhere does it explicitly state the knife attack was not a result of anti-Japan sentiment. It goes even further:
Why not say "In the latest of a series of unrelated knife attacks nationwide...
The very next paragraph continues:
Most of us know the background of this story but people reading this for the first time must surely be thinking a series of anti-Japanese stabbings have taken place all across China.
ian
Lol talk about being brainwashed and prejudiced.
kibousha
China is CCP, if the CCP stops promoting hate, the whole sheep of the country will follow.
ian
Of course there's some truth to it. If in the supposed free people outside China there are so many who are hopelessly brainwashed and twisted it's reasonable to expect that there would be more, and to a greater degree, in a more controlled environment like China
isabelle
Decades of CCP brutality, coupled with its current aggression toward a whole host of countries, is hardly "knee jerk."
But you go to bat for them if you like. After all, Japan is a free country - very much unlike China.
Yes, those that follow the CCP and amplify its propaganda certainly are.
theFu
Every week on state run Chinese TV, there are shows and movies played that show Japanese in the most terrible ways. This is Chinese, CCP, propaganda, very clearly approved by the CCP. The CCP wants Chinese citizens to hate outsiders and have the belief that only the CCP is looking out for their best interests. "National harmony" is the code word for "hate everyone else" used by the CCP.
If the CCP really wanted to work with others, they'd allow non-propaganda movies to be shown so Chinese citizens can choose for themselves what to believe and what not to believe. The Chinese people aren't dumb. They know there is propaganda that constantly targets them, but after many decades of this stuff, even those who know can't help but have a bias against foreigners as a group, unless they've actually interacted with some or traveled outside China without a "tour group".
theFu
The CCP localizes all negative news stories to the point that huge flooding happening in northern China either isn't mentioned at all or gets a single 30 second snippet on the national news, even when the people impacted will spend many months cleaning up the mess from the flooding. There are more stabbings than reported. Just like there are weekly primary school attacks across China, which are never reported.
The CCP blocks as much bad news as possible. They seem to think it makes them look weak - even things that are 100% caused by nature. Sadly, much of the injuries and deaths caused by flooding in China is because they changed how water flows in a very bad way and their cities don't deal with drainage well or not at all. We've all seen the sewer access plates that are just covering a 20cm hole that doesn't have any underground sewers. As long as is looks fine on opening day, then it doesn't matter if it ever works. That seems to be typical of Chinese construction projects.
TokyoLiving
The more China and Japan hates each other, the more good old US rub its cold bony hands, hiding in a dark corner, and say "business, business!!!"..
dmhondz
Few years ago, I've stayed in Beijing for work for two months. Although I don't speak Chinese, I see TV dramas and movies about Japanese occupation of China everyday I was there. I've watched Flowers of War (Rape of Nanking, starring Christian Bale) too many times in the hotel I was staying. If this is not state sponsored brainwashing, I don't know what to call it.
TaiwanIsNotChina
So then what explains the filth pumped out by the party mouthpieces in China?
Mocheake
TokyoLivingJuly 1 11:41 pm JST
One day, you might actually post something that makes sense but I won't hold my breath while waiting.
Japan brutally occupied China for almost a decade and showed very little humanity and regard toward the civilians. It's documented. They bayoneted pregnant women while raping and massacring tens of thousands. You have no problem with that? Every August, Japan rolls out the victim card and plays like they were always a peaceful nation; the innocent victim. Peace-loving and pacifism got forced onto them. You can buy that bs they are selling if you want but don't try to sell it to me. Not once in the near 4 decades here have I heard one Japanese person speak on Nanjing. Ever heard of Unit 451? They conducted hideous experiments on Chinese people, which Japan has never acknowledged. Go read up on your history.
tokyo-star
once again, the ccp has faced its anti-japan policies gone overboard and ordered the social media companies to reel it in. same with smashing up japanese shops/restaurants a decade or so ago after those islands were nationalized....same with the response and peoples' reaction to covid. CCP is a 'reactive' government, not a 'proactive' government, and it only reacts when it perceives its grip on the social fabric is at risk of weakening.
dmhondz
Mochiake
I am not trying to sell you anything. My post is about my experience how the CCP controls their media, stoking nationalism and sowing hatred. I am not denying Imperial Japans invasion of China and its brutality. Where in my posts did I claim all that you say did not happen? My own country was invaded by IJA as well. They were brutal and left it in ruins too. But you cannot deny that the Japan that was then is not the present Japan, it is far from perfect like any democratic country. We all know that through the years living and working here, something that many present Chinese doesn't know because of what they see on their TV everyday.