Faithwire
  • Watch
  • Go!
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • SCOTUS
  • Life
  • Religious Liberty
  • News
  • Politics
  • Faith
  • Opinion

China Launches Hotline to Report People for ‘Mistaken Opinions’

AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
Share Tweet
By Tré Goins-Phillips
Editor

April 20, 2021

China, it appears, has distilled cancel culture into an app.

It’s worse than cancel culture, though, given the hotline grants citizens a tool to tattle to the government when their peers post online comments critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The new service, a product developed by the Cyberspace Administration of China, will — in order to establish a “good public opinion atmosphere” — allow internet users to report people who spread “mistaken opinions,” according to the Independent.

***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

“For a while now, some people with ulterior motives have spread historically nihilistic false statements online, maliciously distorting, slandering, and denying party, national, and military history in an attempt to confuse people’s thinking,” the CAC said in its statement about the new program. “We hope that most internet users will play an active role in supervising society and enthusiastically report harmful information.”

The CCP uses the term “historical nihilism” to describe those who publicly cast doubt on the government’s ruling political class.

Robert P. George, a legal scholar and a professor at Princeton University, said Tuesday he fears there will “likely be a big demand for this app in the U.S.”

Unfortunately there's likely to be a big demand for this app in the U.S. What a tool for thought- and speech-police everywhere.https://t.co/faX4cXkyKw

— Robert P. George (@McCormickProf) April 20, 2021

And Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) similarly condemned the program, arguing it is evidence of the CCP “mimicking the American left, which has been publishing lists of Trump voters [and] hounding them off social media for months.”

This is the Chinese Communist Party mimicking the American Left, which has been publishing lists of Trump voters & hounding them off social media for months https://t.co/179f4f3XtR

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) April 19, 2021

Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Newsweek the initiative is “simply an effort of the current leadership to control the conversation about Chinese history and to limit any debate about interpretations of different events, all with the goal of putting the current leadership and [President] Xi Jinping in the most positive light.”

Given China already bans access to most website outside its borders, Kennedy said the new hotline is just another piece of the “overall environment in which the scope of permissible debate has been radically shrunk.”

***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

He did, though, predict not many Chinese people will engage the service.

The release of the hotline comes just a couple months after Chinese lawmakers made changes to the country’s constitution, stating people who “insult, slander, or infringe upon” the memory of national heroes or martyrs could face up to three years in jail, according to Reuters.

In mid-February, it was revealed that a 22-year-old Chinese citizen named Zhang Shulin spent 15 months in jail for the crime of “insulting state leaders” on the internet.

Released recently, 22-year-old Chinese citizen served 15 months in jail for "insulting state leaders" on Internet. His name is Zhang Shulin, he was arrested in Oct 2019 for his messages in a QQ group chat that "insulted state leaders". #speechfreedom pic.twitter.com/Dzokhh5qSJ

— 中国文字狱事件盘点 (@SpeechFreedomCN) February 14, 2021

Zhang is just one of many. The New York Times reported around that time on a public Google spreadsheet that listed speech crimes committed in China.

Offenders were punished for comments they made both online and offline over the course of the last eight years. The crimes listed ranged from those who shared dissenting thoughts on COVID-19, questioned the government’s account of a clash last summer between Chinese and Indian forces, or spoke unkindly toward law enforcement officials.

***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

Latest

  • culture

    Mother of Brian Laundrie Referenced Bible Verse in Eerie Letter to Son That Surfaced After Gabby Petito’s Murder

  • Faith

    Are the End Times Near? How Artificial Intelligence Could Intersect With Antichrist, Prophecy

  • Faith

    ‘It Was Disturbing’: Christian College Scores Big Victory After Public School Cut Ties. Here’s Why It Matters

  • News

    Target Moves LGBT Displays After Conservative Boycott but Will Still ‘Celebrate Pride Month’

  • News

    Kayleigh McEnany Shares Prophetic Life-Changing Moment, America’s Only Hope: ‘My Prayer Is for Revival’


Sponsored
Sponsored

Newsletter
Signup

Recent Posts

  • Mother of Brian Laundrie Referenced Bible Verse in Eerie Letter to Son That Surfaced After Gabby Petito’s Murder
  • Are the End Times Near? How Artificial Intelligence Could Intersect With Antichrist, Prophecy
  • ‘It Was Disturbing’: Christian College Scores Big Victory After Public School Cut Ties. Here’s Why It Matters
  • Target Moves LGBT Displays After Conservative Boycott but Will Still ‘Celebrate Pride Month’
  • Kayleigh McEnany Shares Prophetic Life-Changing Moment, America’s Only Hope: ‘My Prayer Is for Revival’

Archives

  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016

Categories

  • Christian Persecution
  • Coronavirus
  • culture
  • Culture
  • Entertainment
  • Faith
  • Faith
  • Family
  • George Floyd
  • Go!
  • Israel
  • Life
  • Life
  • Lifestyle
  • Media
  • Men
  • Mission Haiti
  • News
  • News
  • Opinion
  • P.O.V
  • Politics
  • Politics
  • Roe
  • Sponsored
  • Sports
  • Virtue
  • Women

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Navigation

  • Watch
  • Go!
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Staff
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Sign up to get our newsletter your inbox every day.

Newsletter Signup

Do you want to read
more articles like this?