
Dissing Huawei on Chinese social media is a bad idea
Chinese netizens angry over US Huawei ban lash out at internet celebrity
Imagine being banned from buying phones from one of the largest US retail stores for Tweeting something bad about Apple. This week, this implausible fate struck a web celeb. The difference was that it happened in China on the microblogging platform Weibo, and it wasn’t Apple at the center of the dispute. It was Huawei.
On Monday, internet celebrity Luo Yufeng, better known as Sister Feng, published a post saying “Huawei should have collapsed earlier.” The comment caused an unexpected outpouring of anger.
After the post went viral, Chinese electronics retailer Suning solemnly announced on Weibo that it will no longer sell phones to Ms. Luo.

Luo’s high profile and penchant for controversy made her the perfect target online, but criticizing internet stars is just one way Chinese netizens are expressing support for Huawei. Weibo and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, have been full of comments cheering on the company, with people promising to buy only Huawei phones and calling for it to make its own smartphone OS.
TikTok, the viral short video sensation, has its roots in China
It’s not even the first time China’s internet is fuming over what is seen as unfair treatment towards Huawei. Last year’s arrest of Huawei CFO and deputy chairwoman Meng Wanzhou (and the daughter of the company’s founder Ren Zhengfei) sparked a similar outburst of support for the company and calls to boycott Apple.

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