Chinese Social Media Influencers targeting foreign countries

Social media marketing or e-marketing is a customary thing these days. While scrolling our social media accounts, we often see tweets and posts of products and services offered by different organizations. Different accounts are hired by the companies for this. The same concept is being used by some countries like China, which is hiring/paying a few accounts for whitewashing the negativity about China from different social media platforms. It has been discussed in our previous article “Chinese Twitter Army: Whitewashing the negativity about China on Social Media”. These accounts are famous with the name of Wumao accounts or Little Pink Army or Internet Water Army.

The new trend that is being visible on social media is that some Chinese Social Media influencers are mocking western countries and their officials.

1. 念真 Nian Zhen (@Xinhua_88): The account created in June 2017 tweets against people, policies, and culture of western and neighboring countries. Its description mentions “China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR)”. This organization was created during the Chinese Civil War and was meant to carry out Communist Party’s Intelligence Operations. The early intelligence operations targeted the U.S. Dixie Mission.

Targeting Western Country	Targeting Neighboring Country
https://twitter.com/Xinhua_88/status/1487449403388579840	https://twitter.com/Xinhua_88/status/1487432078534889476
https://twitter.com/Xinhua_88/status/1488713596557213700	https://twitter.com/Xinhua_88/status/1490188037606756355

This social media influencer not only insults other countries’ cultures and religions but deliberately tries to generate hate between people.

https://twitter.com/Xinhua_88/status/1490112585966014467

https://twitter.com/Xinhua_88/status/1487607633108426753

2. @Jie29462155: The account created in July 2018 by a journalist in Beijing is also seen targeting western countries. She is the host of China Plus News (World Today) and comes up with positive developments done by China.

https://twitter.com/AnnaGE_/status/1485596016187486210	https://twitter.com/AnnaGE_/status/1491655253699305477
	https://twitter.com/AnnaGE_/status/1487835034341937152

3. @Li_Yang_China: This account is of Li Yang, the counselor of the Department of Information. This account was created in March 2020. This account also targets the United States.

https://twitter.com/Li_Yang_China/status/1487668982186332160	https://twitter.com/Li_Yang_China/status/1486233028540067847
https://twitter.com/Li_Yang_China/status/1484426530302279681	https://twitter.com/Li_Yang_China/status/1482302688964792325

4. @BarrettYouTube: The account is of famous Lee and Oli Barrett, British YouTubers based in Shenzhen, China. This account has also been mentioned in news reports of the New York Times and BBC. This account is also targeting the United States along with tackling negative comments on China.

https://twitter.com/BarrettYouTube/status/1490614765999501319	https://twitter.com/BarrettYouTube/status/1488847373959073794
https://twitter.com/BarrettYouTube/status/1488164208717950977	https://twitter.com/BarrettYouTube/status/1482597310173306881

These are just a few accounts that our team has tried to illustrate, but there are a lot more Chinese diplomats and social media influencers who are involved in such activities of targeting the countries or accounts which speak against China. This kind of diplomacy is known by the name of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy. These diplomats are largely denouncing any criticism of China on social media and in interviews.