Chinese as doggies?

[Allon]

Quote

HONG KONG — The U.S. Embassy in Beijing had good news to share: Student visa applications for Chinese nationals were resuming after a yearlong hiatus.

“Spring has come and the flowers are in bloom,” the embassy wrote in a Chinese-language social media post on Wednesday that included a video of a dog trying to jump over a fence. “Are you like this doggy who can’t wait to go out and play?”

Unfortunate choice of word -- doggies. The propaganda ministry looks for ways to make the US look bad and this was a real gaff. The PM said the US likened the Chinese to dogs. A gross simplification but nonetheless the Embassy withdrew its post but the damage was done.

Quote

 

Fang Kecheng, a professor of journalism and communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the response was a typical example of how nationalistic news outlets and social media users in China wage “public opinion warfare.”

“They pay close attention to what the U.S. government and media say, and amplify any inappropriate expressions to discredit them,” he said.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/world/asia/china-us-embassy.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces-decay-decay-02&block=lone_trending_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=908855309&impression_id=90286a62-ae95-11eb-a5a6-29cf12db5a4f&index=2&pgtype=Article&pool=pool%2F91fcf81c-4fb0-49ff-bd57-a24647c85ea1&region=footer&req_id=179881169&surface=most-popular-story&variant=1_bandit-all-surfaces-decay-decay-02

 

Let me know if you can't reach the link and want to read the article. I can post the whole thing.

[Randy W]

They are unfortunately VERY quick to jump on the "hurts the feelings of the Chinese people" bandwagon. Hopefully, they will learn to recognize the backlash they receive because of this.