When it came to Bolton’s accusation that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for re-election assistance and voiced approval for mass detention camps in Muslim-majority areas in Xinjiang, Chinese media remained largely silent. The country’s diplomats were muted, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian only commenting to say that China “has no intention” to interfere in US elections and that the Trump administration “clearly understands” Beijing’s position in Xinjiang.
The only coverage of Bolton’s allegations about Xinjiang and election interference in the mainstream Chinese media appeared in the English-language Global Times, a state-supported nationalist tabloid aimed at foreign hearings. Paper
the accused Bolton became an “anti-China hardliner” who tried to “tarnish” Beijing and “further cloud the waters of US domestic politics.”
Online censorship
The limits on Bolton’s disclosure in China go beyond not covering the problem: there is evidence of book discussions that were censored on the two biggest platforms on the Chinese internet.
Users on Weibo – services like Twitter – complain they can’t comment on books or share parts of it, while on WeChat, China’s largest messaging application, posts about Bolton appear to be hidden or deleted. CNN can upload a book cover screenshot to WeChat, but no contact can see the post that was generated.
It is unclear what actually triggered censorship, because several posts about the book, including reports in Chinese media, were permitted.
Yan Duan, an office worker in Beijing, said he was locked up from a WeChat account after sharing the PDF of the book in a group message. He received a notice: “Because this WeChat account is suspected of spreading false information, logins are currently disabled.”
“A friend of mine expressed interest in the book, so I thought I could immediately forward the file,” he said, after receiving it from other contacts on WeChat himself. “It looks like there is a censor window. The file can be shared beforehand. But after that, I heard many incidents where messages were hidden or the sender was kicked like me.”
Representatives for Sina and Tencent, who each operate Weibo and WeChat, did not respond to requests for comment.
‘Ask US’
Great Firewall – and Chinese sensors in general – are black boxes, and the exact purpose of any particular block can be difficult to ascertain, whether it’s the work of individual sensors or top-down commands to control coverage.
This is especially true for topics where some discussion is permitted, but certain elements are forbidden.
According to Tetsushi Takahashi, head of the Chinese bureau for the Nikkei newspaper, a report on Japanese public broadcaster NHK about Bolton was blacked out in China. Foreign television channels, including CNN, are often censored this way.
“I think the book, released on Tuesday, benefits China. After all, Bolton described Trump as unfit for the presidency,” Takahashi
write this week. “The bait was interrupted when they showed Trump at the US-China Summit in June 2019, when he asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy more American agricultural products. There is something Xi wants to hide: According to Bolton, the Chinese leader said he wanted to work with Trump for another six years, assuming he will be re-elected. But Xi’s second term as president ends in March 2023. ‘Six more years’ means that Xi is already relying on an extension. ”
It seems clear that China prefers discussion to remain focused on Trump, not Beijing. In one response to a question about Bolton that the Foreign Ministry
has been published onlineZhao’s spokesman said: “You may need to ask the US for what is mentioned in the book.”
