On May 1st, a Weibo hashtag titled “More than 400,000 new cases diagnosed in India in a single day” (#印度单日新增确诊超40万例#) made its rounds on the Chinese social media platform, discussing India’s battle with a devastating second wave of COVID19.
One official Party Weibo account, namely that of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (‘China Chang’an Web’ 中国长安网), used the hashtag in a post saying: “Lighting a Fire in China VS Lighting a Fire in India” (“中国点火VS印度点火”).
The post came with an image that showed a rocket in China on the left side, and the mass cremation of bodies in India on the right side.
China Chang’an is a Weibo account with over 15 million followers. The post was sent out on Saturday afternoon, and it was shared at least 9000 times before it was deleted.
The post and its image have triggered controversy on Weibo. Although it was deleted, screenshots of the post still circulated on social media on Saturday night local time.
A popular legal account with over 390.000 followers (@王鹏律师) posted: “Such an inappropriate comparison, show some respect for life. Every country encounters disasters! Not to mention that in times of [this] pandemic, every country is involved.”
“I don’t know what is wrong with the online editor of China Chang’an today, from the propaganda point of view this is a classic case of propaganda failure,” one Weibo commenter said.
“This is so inappropriate for an official account,” others wrote.
“That post gave me chills. I know some people have a very low bottom line, but I could’ve never expected it would be so low, so low that they can openly sneer at the passing of life, so low that they are devoid of conscience and proud of it,” another blogger wrote.
“It’s inhumane,” others said.
At the time of writing, the official Chang’an account has not responded to their previous post on their Weibo page yet, but comments condemning their insensitivity keep flooding in, both on their Weibo page and under the hashtag #中国长安网#.
“‘China Chang’an Web’ does not represent the people of China,” one Weibo user wrote: “I hope the people of India can soon break away from the COVID19 epidemic.”
By Manya Koetse
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