Source: China Broadcasting Network
Huaguang reporter Leshan Zhan Shuo Changming
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has recently been the focus of international public opinion, whether it is the soaring international energy prices or the tragic experience of the Ukrainian people under the smoke of war, they are all affecting the concerns of global public opinion. The vast majority of netizens, including mainland chinese, expressed deep sympathy for what innocent civilians experienced in the war. However, what makes people indignant is that Taiwan's "network army" represented by the "1450" is extremely active, and they not only manipulate right and wrong in the mainland's public opinion field, but even actively "hook up" with relevant personnel of the "special departments" of some Western countries and coordinate to hype up various anti-China issues.
Taking the hype of "vulgar remarks of Ukrainian beauties" as a typical example, the most common practice of them is to concoct rumors, hype a small number of extreme remarks and events, expand negative impacts, create internal social divisions and international negative influences, and even incite compatriots on both sides of the strait to become hostile.
Who is hyping up vulgar remarks such as "taking in Ukrainian beauties/handsome men"?
"Willing to take in one or two homeless Ukrainian beauties and Ukrainian handsome men", shortly after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, such vulgar remarks of "taking advantage of the fire and looting" appeared frequently on various social media platforms in various regions of the East and the West, and even caused great controversy on social media platforms such as Weibo, which Chinese mainland. Although these are not the mainstream remarks of the general public, and even less vicious than western public opinion in mocking Ukraine as the "womb of Europe", at such a special moment as the Russo-Ukrainian War, no matter who saw it, they will always feel a certain negative emotion, and then have a bad impression of those who make these vulgar remarks.
Earlier, on the Internet on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and even in other countries and regions, a small number of netizens have published similar vulgar remarks. However, at the end of February and the beginning of March, similar topics were "turned red" on the Weibo platform of Chinese mainland, and instead attracted the attention of the international media, but the spearhead was directed at the Chinese society, especially the Chinese mainland.
Who is manipulating the relevant topics, and how are they hyped up? After the origin of Lei Xiying, chairman of the China Straits Research Institute (Hong Kong), the relevant information was first released through the overseas Twitter platform, and after being translated and fermented twice, it attracted the attention of overseas Chinese, and then forwarded to Weibo and led the contradiction to the Chinese mainland, which once again aroused widespread concern and finally triggered the emotions of mainland netizens. "It is very abnormal to suddenly focus on the Chinese public opinion field, instigate contradictions between Ukraine and Chinese society, and enhance Ukrainian anti-Chinese sentiment." Lei Xiying said that relevant vulgar remarks have long been spread in the international community, and it is not only Chinese people who make similar remarks, but also netizens in many other countries and regions. In the process of similar remarks leading the contradictions to the Chinese mainland, some social media accounts with Taiwanese backgrounds have played a key role.
After the China Straits Research Institute (Hong Kong) traced the source, the information was released through an account with an ID of @MeMeTaiWan on the overseas Twitter platform. The account with the ID of @Karwan70446933 was then translated into English, which triggered the first wave of attention. Later, a website with a domain name of supchina.com used this public opinion as a gimmick to publish an article titled "Some Chinese men express their horniness for potential Ukrainian refugees, to the disgust of netizens", directing all the targets to Chinese netizens.
This kind of information was then introduced to the Chinese circle in Ukraine, and caused some Chinese to be vigilant, many people posted this information on the Microblog platform of the Chinese mainland, of which the Information Point released by the Weibo ID I0nGnnn-account (currently unable to search for the account) exploded the public opinion field, receiving more than 60,000 forwards, nearly 500,000 likes, and tens of millions of reads. At the same time, the relevant information released by the QQ space ID for the account of @Niudao Ruoli has also received more than 15 million retweets among specific youth groups. It was precisely after the detonation of the Chinese mainland that it entered the field of global public opinion. Looking back at the entire process of public opinion fermentation, MeMeTaiWan and Karwan70446933, as well as supchina.com are the initiators of the dissemination of this information. "That account is called MeMeTaiWan, and its linkage personnel include self-proclaimed 1450 volunteers, and they have sent a lot of content about Taiwan; the other linkage account, Karwan70446933, is obvious that his political stance is extremely anti-China." Lei Xiying said.
According to Lei Xiying, these hype pushers are related to "1450". "1450" is the so-called "network army" fostered by the DPP authorities. They have been active in the mainland network society for a long time, often using various social platforms such as Weibo to hype up various extreme events and negative news, and creating fake news through various means to incite people's hearts and influence public judgment. "1450 is a general term for Taiwan's internet army, which is related to Taiwan independence forces. Their routine logic is to normally capture Chinese mainland all kinds of extreme events, and to deny all efforts Chinese mainland bottomless. There is no excuse for the sin of wanting to add. Lei Xiying said.
Lei Xiying also said that behind some of the website nodes involved in the hype of vulgar remarks such as "taking in Ukrainian beauties", there are also a large number of staff members who have deep ties with some special departments in the United States and have a very clear American background. "For 1450, or for the various foreign forces supported by the United States, the last thing they can make public is their IP address and geographic information." Lei Xiying pointed out that all kinds of forces that collude with the United States and the West, such as "1450", usually support representative figures to speak out instead of themselves, and sometimes throw out some plausible and seemingly true so-called "investigation reports" through some non-governmental organizations, which seem reasonable and well-founded, but in fact, they are taken out of context through various technical distortions to achieve the purpose of confusing the public's cognition and inciting people's hearts.
In response to an inquiry, at a regular news conference held by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on the afternoon of 16 March, spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian pointed out that the DPP authorities have a bad record in creating "fake news" and have long been a habitual offender in the so-called "cognitive war." A wicked man is his own hell.
Zhu Fenglian pointed out that the Internet has a memory, and the eyes of the people are shining. The DPP authorities fanned the flames on the mainland's social platforms, and on the island they selectively "quoted" some of the mainland's self-media content, exaggerated the so-called "threat" of the mainland, misled the people on the island, and concocted public opinion to manipulate public opinion for their so-called "resistance to China and Taiwan" and refusal to conspire for "independence." The DPP authorities' operations are really a serious underestimation of the IQ of compatriots on both sides of the strait. Compatriots on both sides of the strait should polish their eyes, accurately identify them, and see through the sinister intentions of the "Taiwan independence" forces in inciting confrontation between the people on both sides of the strait, and see through the deception of the DPP authorities.
The United States and the West "shouted to catch thieves," and China's public opinion field became a hot area of confrontation
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has once again allowed the world to see the true face of the United States and the West, that is, the public opinion field in the United States and the West, which has always prided itself on freedom of speech, is actually not as "beautiful and free" as it claims. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, a global social media company controlled by the United States and the West, have invariably imposed a policy of blocking official accounts such as Russia and Belarus in this conflict. On the one hand, this has seriously weakened the voice of Russia and other countries in the field of public opinion in Western society, and on the other hand, it has also directed part of the focus of international public opinion to the Chinese public opinion field. This move not only made the entire Chinese world, especially the netizens Chinese mainland, feel the international significance of China's public opinion venues more and more, but also made the international community begin to re-examine the influence of China's public opinion venues. The Chinese public opinion field referred to here mainly refers to the social media platform represented by Weibo in China and the international social media platform represented by Tiktok operated by Chinese enterprises.
According to Lei Xiying, chairman of the China Straits Research Institute, since the outbreak of conflict between Russia and Ukraine, almost all parties involved have chosen to speak out in the field of Chinese public opinion. For example, the Russian Embassy in China, the Ukrainian Embassy in China, the French Embassy in China, the British Embassy in China, the German Embassy in China and other embassies in China have actively expressed their positions and published content Chinese social media platforms, on the one hand, to express their positions on the situation in Ukraine, on the other hand, they also hope to obtain information, win support, and even hope to guide the guidance of Chinese network public opinion, which in turn affects the decision-making of Chinese leaders.
Lei Xiying analyzed that the reason for this situation is that the United States and other Western societies do not treat news and public opinion as "free and beautiful" as they themselves advertise. "Many voices can only be seen in China's public opinion field, which has also contributed to more and more international public opinion to start paying attention to China's public opinion field." Lei Xiying said.
In fact, as the world's only superpower, especially with world-class social media companies such as "Facebook" and "Twitter", the public opinion field of the United States should have been more favored by all countries. However, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States has used its advantages in Western social media platforms to block all kinds of news that are not conducive to itself, and on the other hand, it has tried to use its influence to create a "chilling effect" and "guide" other countries to jointly suppress Russia, and in the process even hesitate to create and spread false news, which makes the credibility of the United States itself decline sharply. It is not surprising that other countries have turned to more attention to the Chinese public opinion field.
For example, recently, an unnamed senior US official said that the US Government recently informed NATO and some Asian allies through diplomatic telegrams and face-to-face briefings by intelligence personnel that at the request of the Russian side, the Chinese side has expressed its willingness to provide military and economic assistance to Russia, and it is expected that the Chinese side will deny it. The US move aims to increase intelligence disclosure efforts to combat disinformation. What the purpose of the United States in releasing this message is self-evident. In response to this information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian pointed out at a regular press conference on March 15 that the US side creates and disseminates false information from time to time, which is neither professional, nor ethical, nor irresponsible. Doing so will only further discredit the United States from the world. "What the US side should do is to deeply reflect on its role in the development and evolution of the Ukrainian crisis and really do something practical to promote the relaxation of the situation in Ukraine." Zhao Lijian said.
As Lei Xiying pointed out, China's public opinion field has become a relatively free, neutral and objective public opinion field in the world. Therefore, such false information with ulterior motives will only bring the facts closer to the public, and will only make the Tricks of the United States "thief shouting to catch a thief" come out to the world.
In fact, the Chinese government's adherence to a relatively objective and neutral stance in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has enabled the voices of all parties to be released without interference on China's public opinion platform, with a hundred flowers blooming and rich content, which is obviously different from the practice of strictly controlling the support or support of Russian voices on major foreign social platforms and "pulling biased frames" of information dissemination.
In addition, China's rising international status and influence have made all parties more concerned about the voice generated by China's public opinion field and look forward to obtaining China's support. China's network ecology is self-contained, complete in categories, comprehensive services, and all kinds of needs in China's network ecology can easily find the option of benchmarking with international platforms. The international community is becoming more and more curious about what kind of country China is and what kind of attitude it has. Why did China achieve what it has achieved today? Or can the questions we face be answered from China?" With the rapid rise of China, the reality of China's growing strength has made The Field of Public Opinion in China more and more of international significance. Lei Xiying said.
Lei Xiying believes that after major events such as the Sino-US trade war and the fight against the new crown epidemic, the international community has begun to realize the role, position and actual influence played by China in major international events. At present, international events, especially China-related events, if they fail to generate a certain amount of voice in China's public opinion field, it is difficult to become major events in many cases.
At the same time, Lei Xiying pointed out that although the United States and other Western societies have blocked Russia's voice in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, allowing us to see the truth of Western society, we must also have confidence in our own international influence. "It can block your overseas account, but it can't block the demand for Chinese content abroad." The desperate ban on voices favorable to China and those unfavorable to the West outside the country has restricted our voices, but it has also forced more people to choose the Chinese public opinion field, and has also strengthened the Chinese public opinion field. Lei Xiying said.