On March 11, 2023, Xi Jinping and Li Qiang sat on the rostrum. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
[The Epoch Times, March 11, 2023](Reported by Epoch Times reporter Xiao Lusheng) On March 10 and 11, the CCP successively announced the list of new central officials. On mainland China’s Weibo, most media blocked people’s comments, or only left comments of praise. However, there was a lot of scolding in the Chinese messages on overseas Twitter.
On the 10th, the National People’s Congress of the Communist Party of China unanimously passed the 69-year-old Xi Jinping’s third re-election as the President of the Communist Party of China and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China. On the 11th, Li Qiang was appointed Premier of the State Council, and there was a rare situation where 3 votes against and 8 abstentions occurred.
In response to Xi Jinping’s re-election, the CCP’s mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency published a commentary on the 10th. At the beginning of the article, it stated that “this is the choice of the people”, and that “long-lasting warm applause resounded through the Great Hall of the People”, etc.
However, the mainland social platform Weibo was very quiet that day.
Radio Free Asia reported on the 10th that after Xinhua News Agency’s official microblog “Xinhua Viewpoint” published the article, the comment section turned on the selection mode and displayed “No one has commented yet”, completely blocking the voices of the people.
The Epoch Times reporter checked on the 11th and found that Weibo had closed the “Xinhua Viewpoint” Weibo account, and the account could not be searched with “Xinhua Viewpoint”. The relevant provisions of the Bo Community Convention cannot be viewed now.”
The Epoch Times reporter also discovered that after other media reprinted this article, some did not leave any comments, or only left praise comments. Other media’s microblogs that reported news of Xi Jinping’s election either had no comments or only praise. A similar situation also happened on the 11th. After the media reported the news of Li Qiang’s election, the comments below the relevant Weibo appeared “open forwarding and hiding”, etc., and the comments were completely invisible, or only praise comments remained.
The reporter also discovered that the official microblog reports of the mainland media included the words “Xi Jinping”, but when searching for “Xi Jinping” and “Xi Jinping was elected” on Weibo, the microblogs showed no relevant content.
On mainland Weibo, netizens were unable to express their true opinions on the election of the new CCP leader. But on overseas Twitter, Chinese netizens speak freely.
“March 10 in history: Yuan Shikai proclaims emperor; Xi Jinping proclaims emperor.”
“Democracy controlled by the whole process, referred to as whole-process democracy.”
“Unanimous approval, no negative votes, no abstentions, 100% approval rate! This is the whole process of democracy? This is the largest democratic election in the world? This is the real national humiliation!”
“Such a big show is to cover up a ‘fake’.”
“I have never elected anyone since I was a child. I don’t know how these officials became elected. I don’t know what they did, but I know that they and their relatives and friends have made money. A lot of money woo woo woo.”
“The flattery and obedience of the carnivores of the communist dictatorship to their superiors are fully reflected in the so-called ‘whole-process democracy’. The country and the people are deeply kidnapped and go in the wrong direction, but the people are powerless to resist. The price is only history. reincarnation.”
Responsible editor: Sun Yun#
