For the past week or so, India has become a target of misinformation, contempt and racist jokes on China's internet for its growing role in Apple's manufacturing network. Ahead of the new iPhone release on Friday, some netizens are calling for boycotting India-made iPhone 15s. 1/
For the first time, Apple will sell iPhones made in India on release day. India now makes about 7% of iPhones while China is still the dominating force in Apple's manufacturing. But India's role will only increase in the next few years. 2/ theverge.com/2023/9/12/2386…
Some Chinese netizens found issues with Apple giving India the limelight. Rumors started to spread that this year's iPhone models have experienced quality problems. A widely shared misinformation claims that the Europe has rejected India's iPhones.
The misinformation has a few variations. But most of them are roughly along the lines of this: iPhones made in India could not pass Europe's standard. So China-made ones were sent to replace them and India-made iPhones were instead sent to China. 4/
I could not find any basis for this misinformation. The origin of it seems to come from a blogger/commentator on Weibo. The account's claim includes very specific numbers, stating that only 34% of India-made iPhones passed Europe's quality test. 5/
The misinformation has spread across social media platforms. On WeChat, there are at least dozens of articles and videos repeating or even improving upon this unfounded claim in the past few days. 6/
The claim's popularity is built on a broadly held belief by many in China that India-made goods have low quality. A Financial Times article from earlier this year about high rejection rate of iPhone casings made in India is often mentioned. ft.com/content/0d70a8…
What's interesting is that China's state media had previously debunked the rumor that India-made iPhones were to primarily serve the Chinese market. Regardless, new misinformation keeps popping up. 8/ chinadaily.com.cn/a/202309/13/WS…
For the past week, many netizens have been discussing how to avoid India-made iPhone 15s. Some even published tutorials on how to identify India-made iPhones and how to return them to Apple. 9/
Many netizens proclaim that they will not buy India-made iPhones. A popular comment on China's Quora-like platform Zhihu says that Apple was politically motivated to produce iPhones in India and that Chinese consumers should let them know this is not okay by boycotting them. 10/
But the discussions have been soaked in a heavily racist tone. A popular joke shared by Chinese netizens says that new iPhones will reek of curry. 11/
Some even wrote that the best way to identify India-made iPhones is to smell it. Others made fun of India-made iPhones being dirty because they say Indian people don't use toilet paper. 12/
And of course, "Ah San" (阿三), the derogatory nickname for Indian people have been used a lot in these discussions 13/
This round of hostility towards India-made iPhones has a few layers to it. Huawei's new phone has evoked a wave of tech nationalism on the internet. China and India's geopolitical conflicts have created a strong anti-India sentiment. And some people just hate Apple users. 14/
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An Apple employee's photo has caused a wave of online nationalism in China over the weekend. Netizens accuse Apple of discrimination for posting an allegedly "ugly" Asian employee's photo on its Chinese website.
Netizens say that the employee's appearance resembles that of a typical Chinese person from the Qing dynasty and characters from old racist cartoons in the West. Some claimed that the photo was only used on Apple's Chinese website to humiliate its costumers.
It turns out that none of it is true. Chinese media later reported that Apple had confirmed to them the controversial photo is of a Native American employee. And a simple search shows that the photo is used on Apple's websites in numerous regions, including the US.
In response, PRC spokeswoman Mao Ning today asks "How unsure of itself can the world’s top superpower be to fear a young people’s favorite app like that? ...The US government should...provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies in the US." 3/
Chinese state media and nationalist commentators have seized on and amplified what appeared to be the revealing of US President Biden’s secret plan to destroy Taiwan.
Source? A joke tweeted by a DC radio show host that got taken seriously by a Taiwanese political pundit.
For the past two days, Chinese state media such as Global Times, Reference News and Xiake Dao, an account managed by People’s Daily, reported that US President Biden privately said that there’s a plan to destroy Taiwan, according to a US media broadcaster.
Online commentators and influencers jumped in and discussions ensued. Yang Fan, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, reposted an article asking if Biden accidentally revealed the secret or was it deliberate?
New Xinhua article looking back at the war in Ukraine puts US front and center as the culprit: “The crisis only reached this point because of the persistent Cold War mentality, addiction to zero-sum games and enthusiasm for confrontations possessed by the US-led NATO.”
Xinhua asserts that the West is using Ukraine as its proxy to weaken Russia, which is exactly how Kremlin has framed the West’s assistance to Ukraine. Here is what Putin said in his state of the union speech on Tuesday:
China is trying to build up an image of a war mediator. It’s set to release a peace proposal in the coming days. Chinese diplomats said time and time again that they hope to see peace and dialogue.
But what Chinese state media is doing doesn’t quite match this image.
Putin's state of the union speech has been widely covered by Chinese media, where his talking points are repeated uncritically. Full translated text of his speech can be found and shared on social media. This is a stark contrast to how Biden's SOTU speech was censored in China.
Several of Putin's talking points were relayed by Chinese media outlets, including the accusation that the war was started by the West and claims that Russia can't be defeated and that Russia aims at destroying the Nazis in Ukraine.
Some of Putin's talking points and Russia's narratives became hot topics on China's internet. This is a screenshot of what's trending on Baidu. The first one reads "Russia demands that the US pull back its troops from Ukraine".
Now that China has made the Ohio train derailment the focal point of its recent anti-US propaganda, a bunch of nationalist commentators and influencers are doing what they do best--spreading misinformation, taking advantage of Chinese netizens's lack of access to foreign media.
One of the most popular videos shared on China's social media shows purplish dark cloud covering almost the entire sky. Nationalist bloggers claim this was caused by hazardous chemicals released into the air after the the train derailment.
But in reality, the video was posted on TikTok on Jan 27. The user wrote in caption that it was taken in Portland, Oregon. The train wreck in Ohio took place on Feb 3.