South China Sea, Olympic darlings and national scandals: China’s most talked about news stories in 2016
The good, the bad and the bizarre in a year of mainland internet
As another year draws to a close, we look back at some of the biggest stories that captivated the world’s most populous nation and sparked the most heated discussions online.
Patriotic responses to the international ruling on the South China Sea
In July, a day before an international court was due to rule on China and the Philippines’ claims in the South China Sea, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece People’s Daily posted a map on microblogging site Weibo with a phrase reading “This is China, we can’t lose even a single dot”.
The post was an instant hit online, receiving nearly 700,000 likes and 2 million shares.
The next day, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights and that Beijing had caused severe ecological damage to the coral reefs in the area by building artificial islands.
Chinese internet users responded to the ruling – which Beijing rejected – by calling for a boycott of
Philippine fruit, especially bananas. Slogans like “Starve the Filipinos to Death” and “If you want to eat mango, buy Thailand’s” were widely circulated.
Some dried mango vendors on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao posted photos with captions calling for boycotts such as “These dried mangos are from the Philippines and will be disposed of and will not be sold anymore” or “The authentic dried mango from China’s Filipino province”.