While one figure skater broke the Chinese public’s heart, another freestyle skier lifted their spirits – both created controversies on Chinese social media. From China’s Afghanistan concerns to stopping herders in Ladakh, here we look at the big breaking stories from China – and the world.
China over the week
The Chinese public has been enamoured by athlete Eileen Gu, or Gu Ailing, for deciding to compete as part of the Chinese team at the Winter Olympics despite rumours that she still holds her US passport. But the athlete who was being hailed by nationalist citizens also became a subject of mockery for suggesting that anyone in mainland China can use VPN, which social media users saw as her inability to recognise her privilege.
Gu, the 18-year-old freestyle skier, won a gold medal in the big air competition on Tuesday. The Chinese social media instantly fell in love with her. Out of the 20 top Weibo hashtags, ten were dedicated to Gu and her family.
But Gu’s response to an Instagram user who wondered how she accesses Instagram started a controversy. Gu said “anyone can download a VPN (Virtual Protocol Network), it’s literally free on the app store” to access banned websites and apps led to some Weibo users telling her to see her privilege of being able to straddle between US and China.
Nationalist Chinese continued to defend her by pushing back against “criticism” by US media.
The hashtag “Gu Ailing gold” was viewed 2.46 billion times on Weibo. The hashtags related to Gu...
Read Full Story: https://theprint.in/opinion/chinascope/chinas-concern-on-afghanistan-increases-and-a-top-beijing-watcher-advises-ccp-on-war/830207/
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