China plays down balloon stunt with censorship, memes
Limits coverage, steers discussion of flap with US
On Chinese social media, jokes about the suspected spy balloon have been making the rounds. People quipped that the vessel was a misunderstood attempt at wishing Americans a happy Lantern Festival, the Chinese holiday this past Sunday. Others compared it to a glutinous rice ball, a traditional food eaten during the celebrations.
The wisecracking was, in part, what happens on social media anywhere in the world: current events transformed to memes to attract likes and follows. But it also dovetailed with signs of a broader government strategy to downplay an incident that has potentially embarrassed China and threatened to further derail US-China relations.
The Chinese authorities, who have tried to convince the Americans that their furor over the balloon is an overreaction to a meteorological vessel blown off course, are also deploying their propaganda apparatus to control discussion at home. By limiting news coverage and curating online conversation, they are working to ensure that the balloon avoids becoming not only an international headache but a domestic one, too.
The approach points to the potentially tricky balancing act China faces. Beijing needs to look strong. Anti-American sentiment has risen markedly in recent years, often fanned by the government, and the downing of the Chinese balloon by a US fighter jet stoked some cries for retribution. On Tuesday, after a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry criticized the United States for saying it had no plans to return the balloon’s parts to China, social media commenters said China now had ample grounds to treat American vessels however it liked.
But China may be eager to put the balloon behind it. Officials appeared to have been caught off guard by the incident, as shown by their rare expression of regret when first publicly confronted about it.
In addition, after three years of harsh coronavirus controls, China is looking to restart its economy and reenter the global stage — an agenda that was supposed to be helped by a visit to Beijing this week by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken’s visit has now been postponed indefinitely because of the diplomatic uproar over the balloon. The Chinese government may be looking to minimize further damage.
Its apparent permission of humorous responses over more substantive debate could be an effort to allow an outlet for nationalist feeling, said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.
“It’s probably an effort to mollify domestic sentiment,” he said, “but also trying not to let things blow out of control.”
A more low-key approach could also help China dodge potentially awkward questions at home about how it lost a Chinese airship, no matter its purpose, and its recent admission of a second — it claims also wayward — balloon over Colombia. State media has largely avoided covering the saga, other than carrying the foreign ministry’s statements.
China’s official narrative and the public response it has helped shape differ sharply from those of other recent incidents that have strained US-China relations, most notably the visit last August to Taiwan by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Then, officials and state media egged on the nationalism that dominated online, as users called for the military to shoot down her plane or invade Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
There was little sign of a similar official campaign this time, said Xiao Qiang, a researcher on Chinese censorship at the University of California Berkeley.
Still, that did not mean there was a lack of interest in the balloon among Chinese users. Various hashtags about it were among the top trending topics on Weibo in recent days; one early hashtag, claiming the balloon had strayed into US airspace by force majeure, racked up 670 million views.
But the tone of many of the posts was humorous. One of the most popular memes declared the vessel “The Wandering Balloon” — a play on “The Wandering Earth 2,” a Chinese science fiction movie currently dominating the country’s box office. Users turned photos of the balloon into movie posters.
Others edited a pair of chopsticks around the balloon, to emphasize its resemblance to the sticky rice balls eaten at this time of year.
The lighthearted response may have been in part organic, said Manya Koetse, the editor of What’s on Weibo, a website that tracks chatter on the Chinese social media platform. The end of COVID restrictions and the Lunar New Year holiday, on top of the popularity of the Wandering Earth film (which is about how China saves the world) have probably fed renewed confidence among many Chinese.
But China’s Internet is tightly regulated, especially when it comes to hot topics or politics. And on this issue, too, the government was working to guide public opinion.
By Tuesday, the hashtag “Wandering Balloon” no longer yielded results, with Weibo citing “relevant laws and regulations.” Another hashtag, about the second Chinese balloon over Latin America, was also censored after briefly topping the hot search ranking on Monday.