China’s silence on peng shuai shows the limits of Beijing’s propaganda

Wednesday, 1 December 2021newsdesk

When Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accused a former top leader of sexual assault in November, authorities turned to a tried-and-true strategy. At home, the country’s censors scrubbed away any mention of the allegations. Abroad, a few state-affiliated journalists focused narrowly on trying to quash concerns about Peng’s safety.

New Delhi, 01 December 2021

As per news report of The Indian Express, Beijing seems to be relying on a two-pronged approach of maintaining the silence and waiting for the world to move on. The approach suggests that the country’s sprawling propaganda apparatus has limited options for shifting the narrative without drawing more attention to the uncomfortable allegations Beijing hopes would just disappear. On China’s social media platforms and other digital public squares, the censors’ meticulous work has left almost no sign that Peng had ever accused Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier, of sexual assault. Like a museum to a previous reality, her social media account remains, without new updates or comments.

Source - The Indian Express