While China focuses on Jack Ma’s Media Empire, Chairman Rabbit thrives

Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg

Even as China tries to pull media outlets away from Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the authorities are allowing several patriotic upstarts to flourish in one of the world’s most restrictive media spaces.

One of the main voices is Chairman Rabbit – the social media nickname for Harvard University-educated Prince Ren Yi, whose popularity comes in part from Chinese citizens tired of what they perceive as constant China bashing in Western media outlets. Chairman Rabbit, former assistant to the late famous sinologist Ezra Vogel, has one following more than two million fans on social media platforms Weibo and WeChat.

The media must have “social responsibility” and reflect on public sentiment, Ren said in a telephone interview. He added that China was still trying to strike a balance between allowing different positions while ensuring that the public does not lose confidence in political institutions.

Ren’s success shows where the line for allowable speech lies under President Xi Jinping, who has further narrowed the room for dissent and critical votes since he took power in 2012. Besides the start-up of some foreign journalists and now Ma to sell properties like the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, but China also moves regularly to destroy new media platforms out of his control.

Last month, authorities quickly blocked Clubhouse after it emerged as a venue where internet users, including those in China, gathered to discuss the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and the independence of Taiwan – topics deemed too sensitive for open discussion. on the internet of China. Around the same time, social media users and bloggers had to obtain a license to post about current events, making it virtually impossible for anyone to operate outside of the Chinese censorship system.

But some of those embracing the restrictions find a large audience among Chinese citizens who are skeptical of both Western stories and state-run mouthpieces like the People’s Daily or China Central Television. Ren’s writing took off during the protests of pro-democracy in Hong Kong, when he won educated readers who were not fully convinced by the reports of the mainstream Chinese media.

Ren argued that the protesters were driven by identity politics and would never support the mainland authorities, regardless of the economic incentives offered. He compared Hong Kong youth wearing black T-shirts to the Ku Klux Klan, saying that the leaders of the financial hub had been infiltrated by the ‘deep state’ and needed to be screened for their political views – an idea Xi implemented this year with rules that only “patriots ”can run the city.

China’s need for a positive narrative that goes beyond official sources – including aggressive diplomats referred to as “Wolf Warriors ”in the West – became all the more evident after criticism of how it handled the Covid-19 pandemic. In the past year, Beijing has been increasingly on the defensive despite widespread criticism of the way it treats predominantly Muslim-ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang and democracy advocates in Hong Kong.

‘They will demonize you’

Xi has long called on Chinese media workers and academics to “tell China’s stories to the world.” Some have been sent to study Zhang Weiwei from Chunqiu Institute at Fudan University, according to two people who attended the sessions. Zhang, a staunch and outspoken advocate for how the Chinese model of governance is superior to Western democracies, is known as one of Xi’s favorite scholars, according to one of the people.

Chinese scientists are also trying to find ways to explain China in a way that is understandable to the West. Wang Yiwei, director of Renmin University’s Institute of International Affairs and a former Chinese diplomat, said the disconnect was the result of the US being unable to destroy or assimilate China.

“The US has a very religious mindset – they want to get you into their sphere,” said Wang, who is working on a book he believes is China’s counter-argument to Max Weber’s “Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism.” “And if they can’t, they will demonize you and try to destroy you.”

Wang Zichen was so shocked at the way Western journalists reported on China that he decided to publish his own newsletter. Almost a year later “Pekingnology ”has quickly amassed some 1,600 subscribers – including Beijing diplomats, journalists and investors – with in-depth dives on everything that really owns Huawei Technologies Co. against the more vague elements of Chinese politics, such as the Spirit of the Fifth Plenum.

“It shows that telling a Chinese story from a Chinese perspective, deeply rooted in Chinese practice, is of great value to and can be appreciated by the West,” said Wang Zichen.

Like Chairman Rabbit, Wang Zichen presents himself as an independent voice, even though he works as a reporter for state media during the day Xinhua News Agency. He said his bosses have given a tacit nod of approval to continue his side project, but insists he act alone. “It’s a one-man business,” he said. “There is no outside help, intervention or guidance.”

Wang Zichen sees prominent China observer Bill Bishop as an inspiration, especially to show that Chinese punditry can be financially lucrative. Pekingnology is published on the Substack platform, in which Bishop invests. Wang Zichen also admires Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Communist Party-backed newspaper Global Times, for being one of the first to defend China on Twitter.

“I love my country very much,” said Wang Zichen. “I think making people understand more of China in its own intended original sense – that’s the goal of people in my profession.”

– With help from Colum Murphy, Jing Li and Lucille Liu