The contrast could not be more telling. While the international media hailed Chloé Zhao as making history this week by becoming the second woman and the first Asian woman to land the best director Oscar award for the film Nomadland , the Chinese media acted as if her historic win had not happened at all. Moreover, international attention has since then focused on the Chinese censors’ heavy-handed approach in scrubbing any mention of the award from social media and search engines because of her critical comments about the country of her birth in a 2013 interview. China has missed a great opportunity to promote its soft power by refusing to celebrate her win and hold her up as an inspiration to women everywhere. Instead, the Chinese government’s treatment of Zhao has become the latest example of how to lose friends and not influence people at a time when Beijing is trying hard to shape up its narrative and win support from the international community amid rising confrontations with the West over values and rules. The Chinese media had once been filled with hearty endorsements of the Beijing-born woman, particularly after Zhao won the best director prize at the Golden Globes in February amid predictions that she was the strong favourite to grab the Oscar. Born to an elite family – her father was a senior business executive and her stepmother is one of China’s most celebrated actresses, Zhao was hailed as the dream girl who struck big on the international arena on her own and her Golden Globe success was a win for all Chinese. The sentiment turned sour overnight, however, after nationalistic internet users dug up her 2013 interview with Filmmaker Magazine , in which she described China as “a place where there are lies everywhere”. As a result, Nomadland , originally scheduled for release in Chinese cinemas last month, has been cancelled. Scepticism of China’s climate promises is misplaced Her criticism was indeed harsh but that was nearly 10 years ago and since then, she has not repeated it publicly. Interestingly, the magazine has also edited out the offending sentence from its online story. More importantly, holding this against her seems narrow-minded and counterproductive. All the positivity her international successes have brought and projected matters much more and far outweighs the negative impact of her criticism. Watching the live telecast of the Oscars beamed around the world, it was heartwarming and touching to see Zhao recite in her mother tongue the first six words from the Chinese Three Character Classic text, commonly known as San Zi Jing , which she translated as “people at birth are inherently good”. In her acceptance speech, she went on to say that she always found goodness in the people she met and urged people to “hold on to the goodness” in themselves and in each other. Beijing’s decision to censor her win has not only squandered an opportunity to celebrate her success and showcase Chinese culture because of her Chinese heritage but it has also risked upsetting millions of film fans around the world who are otherwise apolitical. It should be particularly disappointing to the vast overseas diaspora of Chinese who are already divided in their loyalties between their adopted countries and their homeland as the confrontation between China and the West intensifies. The censorship may have satisfied the nationalistic social media users who are intolerant of any criticism of China in the international media, constructive or otherwise. Those people may see Beijing’s latest decision as a sign of strength and confidence but others outside China are most likely to view Beijing as being insecure and unconfident. The US risks forcing China’s hand on Taiwan Furthermore, the widespread negative international reactions to the controversy should again serve as a timely reminder to the Chinese government. The Chinese leadership has long encouraged nationalism to bolster the legitimacy of the ruling Communist Party and push back against criticisms of the party’s behaviour and practices at home. Chinese leaders have tried to walk a fine line between stoking nationalism and seeking global engagement so that the nationalist sentiment would not get in the way of the country’s plans to continue to open up to the outside world. In recent years, however, the government has been seen as being too willing to encourage domestic populism for short-term political gains. Another example came back in March, when international clothing brands including Nike and H&M caused a nationwide uproar by refusing to use cotton sourced from Xinjiang and expressing concerns about alleged forced labour in the region. Those Western brands were named and shamed, with e-commerce platforms dropping H&M altogether and celebrities cutting ties with those firms. But concerns that naming and shaming those companies could adversely affect China’s ability to attract foreign investment have since prompted the Chinese media to quietly tamp down their rhetoric. So what will happen to Zhao and her film Nomadland in China? If history can be a guide, the Chinese tend to hold a grudge for a fairly long time. Just look at the fortunes of the NBA. Its relations with China, one of its largest overseas markets, cooled sharply in October 2019 after Daryl Morey, the then general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team, retweeted an image supporting the Hong Kong protesters , leading to a furious Chinese backlash. Chinese broadcasters have since stopped broadcasting live NBA games and the Houston Rockets, once one of the most popular NBA teams in the country, and which once counted Yao Ming as a player, has been effectively blackballed by Chinese fans. Only recently did signs emerge to suggest an easing of tensions as state media recently reported that the NBA was expected to participate in China’s first International Consumer Product Expo, scheduled to open later this month in Haikou of Hainan Island. Let’s hope Beijing’s ban on Zhao and her film will be lifted more quickly. As some cynics have noted, Nomadland is a perfect and timely American film to be shown to the Chinese audience. At a time when Beijing is stepping up propaganda about a declining America, there is hardly any better example than this movie, which tells the story of a widow who lost everything in the Great Recession and was forced to travel in a van living like a nomad in what claims to be the most powerful country in the world. Wang Xiangwei is a former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post. He is now based in Beijing as editorial adviser to the paper