The Chinese government aims to keep only positive content visible to internet users in China, censoring all poverty-related discussions or videos that show the condition of the people living in the country.
Broadening its censorship protocol in the country, the Chinese government is now deleting from the internet any videos and discussions on poverty and financial struggle that their citizens are facing on a regular basis. A report by The New York Times put forward a few such instances of China's deletion of videos on poverty and censoring of poverty-related content.
The People's Republic of China (PRC), China's ruling party, mandates censorship and does not allow any criticism or complaints by the people and any form of insubordination can lead to dire consequences.
According to the NYT report, a Chinese man named Mr Hu recently interviewed a retired woman on camera who was shopping for her meals. The 78-year-old woman was a widow and her pension was the sole source of income living in Chengdu city. While speaking to Hu, she said that she could only afford rice and had not eaten meat in a while and tears rolled down as she narrated about her financial crisis. Her pension was roughly 100 yuan and when she bought rice, eggs, pork and flour in the grocery store they both were in, the bill came to 127 yuan which was far higher than what she earned so Hu insisted on paying.
The man ends the video with a 'heavy heart'. This video has been removed from the Chinese internet but still exists on Youtube.
According to the NYT report, there have been more such videos of Chinese people talking about their financial condition but the video getting deleted by the government. A singer spoke about having gloomy work options even after being well-educated. He sang, "I wash my face every day, but my pocket is cleaner than my face." And continued singing, "I went to college to help rejuvenate China, not to deliver meals." His song was banned along with the suspension of his social media accounts says the report.
Another instance cited in the report was of a migrant worker who worked very hard to support his family, contracted covid last year. His story of struggle and financial inequality came out and he was called the most hardworking person in China on the internet. This is when the censors blocked all discussion about him and not just that had stationed local authorities outside his house so that no reporter could speak to his wife about their financial situation.
The report also stated that searching for 'pinkun' or poverty in China's biggest news portal shows news about poverty being the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. And the lack of discussion on Chinese poverty conditions.
In 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that they have succeeded in the battle against poverty. Now, with the censorship, the government claims to keep all talk about the country positive on the internet. According to the report, they claim to pull up many people out of the poverty line in the last four decades but refuse to speak about pushing them to the brink of crisis during the Mao Zedong rule.