Little Pink Keyboard Tigers

The Rise of the 'Little Pinks' (“Xiǎo fěnghóng”) in China, has been lightly touched upon before in this blog, when Chinese students or even journalists have tried to prevent free speech in countries outside their own ...

China's Little Pinks Are A Force On The Chinese Web ..... And The WWW

.... So who are the 'Little Pinks'?

They are younger citizens of China who are fired with an excessive patriotic zeal aka nationalism. They are also usually the well off modern Chinese teens, and twenty somethings, born after Tiananman Square, and into the comparatively (compared to then) benign modern rule of the Communist Party Of China (CCP).

Now nationalism can be defined as an identification solely with one's own nation, and an uncritical support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations. This sort of nationalism is usually based upon the conviction that a particular country is the best in the world, because you were born in it .... and is not exclusive to the Chinese e.g. As William Golding, said in his novel 'Lord of the Flies': “We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.”

Therefore the 'Little Pinks' of China, are in that regard therefore no different to many others around the globe e.g. Trumps core support in the US. What makes them different is that they are mainly females, aged between 18 and 24 (Weibo statistics and Research published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, suggest as many as 83 per cent), and they have mostly known only full employment and a rising standard of living, that whilst not necessarily on par with their equivalents in the West, is still a million miles away from the material and socio-economic lives of their grand parents, or even their parents.

But crucially, as women, they are without doubt enjoying a level of freedom and equality in their society (whilst not actually being equal with men, if you look at CCP and business leadership), unprecedented in Chinese history, even as recently as 30 years ago.

So they are loyal to the regime .... in fact, very very loyal to the CCP, or perhaps the just the concept of China as a modern state. So at the slightest hint of criticism of the regime, their nationalism instantly compels them to attempt to dominate domestic areas of the Internet with their jingoistic rage. They are easy to identify, by being the most vocal members of a social media community that is normally inhibited by government censorship at home .... but it is abroad where their existence is most striking.

Now with normal social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, all officially blocked on the mainland of China, this means that the little pink warriors are either breaching the 'Great Firewall of China,' and thus breaking the law, or their domestic only ranks are being swelled by Chinese students who are studying abroad. If its the latter, then one wonders what exactly they are getting by studying abroad?

So for example: When a Chinese student (Yang Shuping) commented at her graduation day at the University of Maryland in the United States in 2017, about the smog in her home town, and praised the speech freedoms she had enjoyed in the US .... she unleashed a huge backlash in China, as Internet users accused her of distorting the truth, and belittling her home country .... she was forced to apologise.

Treatment Of The Flag Differs In The UK .......

Similarly when Chinese actress Xu Dabao turned up on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in a dress featuring the five stars of the national flag, the Internet reverberated with accusations that she had desecrated the flag .... she was forced to apologise.

Others, such as Taiwanese pop star,  Chou Tzu-yu (who waived a Taiwan flag on a Taiwan TV show), have felt the full wrath of the Chinese trolls. And its not just Chinese (or Hong Kong / Taiwanese) citizens who feel the force of these semi-orchestrated campaigns. China pays communist party supporters (mostly male government employees), to post pro-party propaganda ... they are known as '50 centers,' others such as the Communist Party youth league’s “Volunteer Campaign to Civilise the Internet” are apparently volunteers but who are also looking to their future employment prospects.

The little pinks on-line behaviour has been publicly applauded by the Chinese media and authorities, so when an Australian swimmer accused Chinese Swimmer Sun Yang as being a "Drug Cheat" during the Rio Olympics, almost instantly his social media accounts were mobbed by little pinks, demanding an apology .... no matter that even the Chinese authorities had banned him in 2014 after he had tested positive for trimetazidine. Others attacked include Lady Gaga's Instagram account (she had the temerity to meet the Dalai Lama), and a Hong Kong pop starlet, who had participated in the Occupy Central protests of 2014.

Chinese On-Line Propaganda Isn't Subtle

The state controlled nature of some of the Little Pinks is reflected in the fact that many are members of an on-line forum called the “Emperor’s Board”, which has a following of at least 29m people, and where “crusades” against other social media users are co-ordinated. The troll army also organises via private groups on Facebook (which is blocked for the general Chinese public). The most popular of these is private and has 40,000 members, who must express their loyalty for the communists party’s “One China” policy, and also declare that they are Chinese before being allowed to join.

The Wuhan Diary Had To Have The Title Changed .....

The latest target of their ire is a blogger from Wuhan, whose 'Wuhan diary: an exclusive account of 60-days' by Fang Fang, was initially supported by many when it was solely for Chinese and written in Chinese .... she was trapped in the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, and wrote about the experience (the good and the bad) .... but when news that a US and German publishers had bought the rights to translate and publish the posts as a book entitled 'DISPATCHES from the ORIGINAL EPICENTER,' which somewhat strangely was later changed to 'DISPATCHES from a QUARANTINED CITY' (No Chinese interference, no absolutely not ... ha-ha) ....... well, then the trolls turned on her, and her WeChat account was attacked. The claim has been made that her posts and the books will provide ammunition for foreigners to attack China, and not unexpectedly, there are a lot of Chinese people buying this extreme view .... not least the Little Pinks and the '50 Cent Party'.

The irony of the state orchestrated or condoned attacks on the truth, while China denies any cover ups (especially the fact that according the the original Wuhan blog posts Fang Fang had stated that 'They told us it wasn't contagious'), is something that the Little Pinks either don't see, or just don't care about or accept .... the future for a world dominated by a state that is run like this is frightening.

I thought that when the USSR collapsed, we would never see another state like that again, but its seems that China under its president for life, will soon replace the USSR as destroyers of the truth.

The little pinks may one day live to regret their blind obedience to big brother .... but final word to one their sisterhood "We couple strength with gentleness, and love our country wisely." .... you have been warned!!