Chinese online nationalists target Nobel laureate water company

Online nationalism has surged in China in recent weeks, with an increasing number of online nationalists targeting Mo Yan, China’s first Nobel Prize winner for literature, and Nongfu Spring, China’s largest bottled water producer.

The online attacks on Nongfu Spring began after the death on February 25 of Zong Qinghou, the founder of Hangzhou Wahaha Group, Nongfu Spring’s main rival.

Some netizens began to compare Zong Qinghou with Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring and the richest man in China, and it quickly evolved into a full-scale attack on Nongfu Spring. Some online nationalists claimed that Nongfu Spring’s product packaging contained Japanese elements and accused him of being pro-Japanese, while others focused on accusing Mr. Zhong’s son of being a U.S. citizen.

“If the successor of Nongfu Spring is an American, the company’s ideology is unacceptable,” one Chinese netizen wrote on Weibo, a popular social media platform in China.

“I cannot accept an American becoming the richest man in China,” another netizen, Liu Jianan, wrote on Weibo. “Even if I can’t change anything, my family and I can definitely stop buying Nongfu Spring products.”

Calls for a boycott of Nongfu Spring products have affected the company’s share price, which has fallen more than 6% since the attacks began last month.Amid the turmoil, Chinese media reported that Zhong Shanshan resigned from the position of legal representative of a subsidiary of Nongfu Spring March 11th.

Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan (real name Guan Moye) was also attacked last month by a self-proclaimed nationalist blogger. Wu Wanzheng, who owns the Weibo account “Tell the Truth Mao Xinghua,” announced on February 27 that he plans to sue Mo for violating China’s Heroes and Martyrs Protection Law, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison if found guilty.

The indictment shared by Wu on WeiboHe accused Mo Yan of glorifying Japanese invaders in his novel “Red Sorghum,” which tells the story of a Chinese family during the Anti-Japanese War.

He also claimed that in another novel, Mo tried to “smear the heroes and martyrs of the People’s Liberation Army” during China’s civil war. Wu demanded that Mo apologize, provide compensation equivalent to US$0.14 to every Chinese citizen, and remove his book from shelves across China.

Magic City and Nongfu Spring are not the only targets of cyberattacks by Chinese nationalists in recent years. Some Chinese and global brands, including Chinese sportswear maker Li Ning and Western brands such as H&M, Nike and Adidas, have been criticized for designing uniforms that resemble those worn by Japanese soldiers during World War II or boycotting cotton from China’s Xinjiang region.

Some experts said that “waving the nationalist flag” is like a “protective shield” for Chinese people engaged in online activities.

“These people choose their targets very carefully, knowing they can bring a lot of online traffic to themselves,” Yang Dali, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, told VOA in a telephone interview.

In some cases, Chinese nationalists may feel “morally justified” in targeting certain businesses or individuals, he said. “Unless things get too egregious, the general environment is generally tolerant for people engaging in these activities,” Young said.

While there were mechanisms in the past to prevent content on Chinese social media from becoming too nationalistic, online content regulators are now more focused on removing critical comments that might be deemed “unpatriotic” or “sensitive” by Chinese officials.

“There is no resistance to nationalist content on the Chinese Internet. The reason why the Chinese authorities do not delete nationalist content online is because it conforms to the government’s narrative,” said Eric Liu, a former Weibo administrator and editor of “America” ​​magazine. Eric Liu) said. A person based at China Digital Times, a bilingual news site, told VOA by phone.

After facing threats from nationalist bloggers, Mo attended an event in Beijing with British writer Abdulrazak Gurnah earlier this week, which was criticized by multiple Chinese state media Report. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV also reportedly conducted an interview with the famous writer.

Separately, some Chinese netizens came forward to urge nationalists to stop targeting Nongfu Spring, while several state media outlets across China published opinion pieces calling on nationalists to “stop the political persecution of other business owners” in China.

Despite efforts by state media to counter cyberattacks, some observers say the Chinese government is unlikely to try to stem the trend. Murong Xuecun, a famous Chinese novelist, told VOA by phone: “If those cyber nationalists want to stop these targeted cyber attacks, the government will punish them.”

“Ten years after Xi Jinping came to power, China’s free speech environment is already very bad. If the trend of targeted online attacks continues, China’s free speech environment may deteriorate further,” the novelist said.

In addition to a deteriorating environment for free speech, the trend could have a chilling effect on many Chinese internet users, said Liu of China Digital Times. “China’s online environment will deteriorate to the point where many Internet users may worry about being targeted by such attacks,” he told VOA.