Patriotic post calling for Chinese to be on guard against 'Western anti-China powers' goes viral
Posting praised by Chinese state-owned media
An emotive nationalist post titled You are nobody without the motherland has gone viral online as major Chinese state-owned media hailed the message as a spontaneous expression of patriotism.
The anonymous post appeared online in mid-November and has since been reposted by hundreds of Chinese websites and widely tweeted on Weibo.
The post called on every Chinese person to be on the alert for “Western anti-China powers”, which “could take advantage of social instability to harm Chinese people”.
“Proactively safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity must become the consensus of every citizen,” said the post.
The post went viral at a sensitive time as China’s newly declared Air Defence Identification Zone over the South China Sea has sparked protests from Japan and South Korea. The US, as an ally of Japan, has also expressed concerns.
The post criticised the US as “an initiator of plots” to overthrow the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and “create internal chaos” in China. “China became the biggest threat to the US after a collapse of the former Soviet Union. Their plots have long been known to all,” said the post.
“China would be in chaos if it lost the leadership of the CCP and this would be a catastrophe for the 1.3 billion Chinese people,” warned the post.
The post also praised the wisdom and capability of President Xi Jinping. “Though he has the blood of a princeling… he has the courage and know-how to capture ‘big tigers’,” said the post. Big tigers refer to corrupt high-ranking officials.
In a rare move, flagship state-owned media lined up to hail the post. Xinhua, the PLA Daily and the Guangming Daily have run related commentaries on the post.
“The post has been widely circulated online and some opinions in the articles have won support and sympathy from netizens,” said Xinhua.
Commenting on the post, the PLA Daily said that the biggest patriotism of a solider is to “fight and win battles”.
Guangming Daily said the online complaints and critics of government and officials were “disturbing noises” and patriotism should become the “deepest emotion” running through every Chinese person.
However, some netizens questioned the post. “Why do we need a state, if there’s no happiness and freedom?” asked Ren Zhiqiang, a real estate tycoon on his weibo account.