A heartbreaking video of a retiree that showed what groceries she could buy with 100 yuan, or $14.50 – roughly her monthly pension and sole source of income – went viral on the Chinese internet. The video was deleted. A singer vented the frustration among young, educated Chinese about their dire finances and gloomy job prospects, like gig work. “I wash my face every day, but my pocket is cleaner than my face,” he sings. His song was banned and his social media accounts suspended.
In 2021, President Xi Jinping declared “a comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty.” Yet many remain poor or live just above the poverty line. With the country’s economic prospects dimming, poverty has become a taboo subject that can draw ire from the government. Searching the Chinese word “pinkun,” or poverty, on the country’s biggest news portal qq.com, the top item is about how poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the US.
Hu Chenfeng had posted a recording showing an elderly woman living on barely $15 a month. In the words of many, he was revealing too much. In the video, which survives outside the Chinese internet, Hu interviews the 78-year-old widow in Chengdu. She said she plans to buy rice, the only thing she could afford. She hadn’t eaten meat for a long time. The video was removed from the two biggest video platforms in China. Hu’s accounts were suspended.
Even a discussion thread on Zhihu about why the government doesn’t allow videos about the poor was censored. “Because theoretically there’s no poor people in China,” one social media user speculated.
In China, the biggest divide in wealth is among rural and urban residents. The gap is created by government rules that peg social benefits to where a person was born, not according to their residence, income or needs. Another reason poverty is seen as a novelty is that local governments chase beggars and homeless people off the streets. Beijing government not only bars beggars and homeless from staying in the city. In 2017, it kicked many low-income people out of their apartments to get rid of what it called “low-quality population.” The government also doesn’t want the public to dwell on youth unemployment, which it says has reached 20%.
Behind the ban is a government eager to keep all talk about China positive. Communist Party brags about how many people it lifted out of poverty, while refusing to mention how it had thrown China into abject poverty under Mao Zedong.
The government wants to “deny the prevalence of economic recession and unemployment” and avoid accountability, a commenter wrote. The same can be said about poverty. By censoring videos and online discussions, the government is evading its responsibility to provide the most basic social safety net to the poor. NYT
In 2021, President Xi Jinping declared “a comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty.” Yet many remain poor or live just above the poverty line. With the country’s economic prospects dimming, poverty has become a taboo subject that can draw ire from the government. Searching the Chinese word “pinkun,” or poverty, on the country’s biggest news portal qq.com, the top item is about how poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the US.
Hu Chenfeng had posted a recording showing an elderly woman living on barely $15 a month. In the words of many, he was revealing too much. In the video, which survives outside the Chinese internet, Hu interviews the 78-year-old widow in Chengdu. She said she plans to buy rice, the only thing she could afford. She hadn’t eaten meat for a long time. The video was removed from the two biggest video platforms in China. Hu’s accounts were suspended.
Even a discussion thread on Zhihu about why the government doesn’t allow videos about the poor was censored. “Because theoretically there’s no poor people in China,” one social media user speculated.
In China, the biggest divide in wealth is among rural and urban residents. The gap is created by government rules that peg social benefits to where a person was born, not according to their residence, income or needs. Another reason poverty is seen as a novelty is that local governments chase beggars and homeless people off the streets. Beijing government not only bars beggars and homeless from staying in the city. In 2017, it kicked many low-income people out of their apartments to get rid of what it called “low-quality population.” The government also doesn’t want the public to dwell on youth unemployment, which it says has reached 20%.
Behind the ban is a government eager to keep all talk about China positive. Communist Party brags about how many people it lifted out of poverty, while refusing to mention how it had thrown China into abject poverty under Mao Zedong.
The government wants to “deny the prevalence of economic recession and unemployment” and avoid accountability, a commenter wrote. The same can be said about poverty. By censoring videos and online discussions, the government is evading its responsibility to provide the most basic social safety net to the poor. NYT