Official Chinese social media accounts forced to delete posts mocking India’s Covid-19 death toll
- An official Communist Party body and the public security ministry were hit by an online backlash for posts contrasting Chinese successes with mulitple pyres
- The attempt to pander to nationalist sentiment appears to have backfired as the Chinese government has offered to help its neighbour in its time of need
As India continues to grapple with massive surges of Covid-19 cases, Beijing has sought to project the image of a benevolent power abroad, but such efforts have been undermined by agencies that have tried to take advantage of the situation to pump up nationalist sentiment at home.
In a post on Weibo on Saturday, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the party body that controls the courts and police, juxtaposed the image of China’s most recent space launch with the caption “China lighting a fire” and a picture of Indian funeral pyres with the caption “India lighting a fire”.
The image was deleted later that day after it was criticised both at home and abroad for its insensitivity.
The Ministry of Public Security, which has 31 million followers on Weibo, also posted a similar message on Friday comparing the image of an emergency hospital in Wuhan named Huoshenshan (which means fire god mountain), with a photo of a mass cremation ground in India. That post has also been deleted.