China takes energetic measures against the defense of online pandas

The visitors attended the National Washington zoo on Friday to witness the cheerful inauguration of two pandas provided by China. Fans posted photos and videos on social networks, as did the zoo. Under the hashtag #dcpanas.

But in China, the government has sent a chilling message to the Pandas fans to be careful with what they say online. Some influential people online have been arrested or interrogated by what the authorities called “rumors” and “radical fans culture.”

Police have attacked people who have advocated animal welfare or criticized exchanges abroad as the one brought to Washington. But state media have also published warnings about a broader fan of pandas. The measures occur in the midst of the repression of Chinese leader Xi Jinping against the culture of Internet fans.

China has millions of pandas fans, many of whom have embraced the cause of animal welfare in a country where aggressive reproduction tactics have hurt bears and led the puppies to be prematurely separated from their mothers. For years, the authorities tolerated their activism and their online criticisms, aimed at both Chinese and foreign zoos.

No more. Last month, the Police of the province of Sichuan said that he had arrested 12 people for defamed experts in pandas, encourage violence and disseminate false information about the pandas, including two that used to live in the National Zoo.

The authorities have accused influential people of the pandas to harass the staff of Chinese breeding centers and enrich themselves with donations broadcast live. Police claim to have discovered “radical animal protection bands” focused on pandas in three provinces, according to state media.

In an attempt to control the culture of the Internet, XI has fought a war against the online Fandom, comparing enthusiastic groups with “evil sects.” The authorities have arrested sport fans for defamed Chinese athletes, have arrested people who invaded airports to greet celebrities and have suspended K-POP fans accounts.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not answer the questions sent on Wednesday morning.

Repression shows how fragile it is speech in China, even when the theme is the pandas.

“These ‘Patriots’ civilians were sometimes encouraged or tolerated by the Government,” said Xiao Qiang, a researcher on the Internet at the University of California, Berkeley. “But when official narratives have new needs,” he added, “Pandas fans can also be punished and arrested.”

Online influencers maintain fun pages on social networks, where users connect around their favorite animals. These communities exploded during the pandemic, when the people trapped in their homes resorted to animal reels chewing bamboo. a panda, A productIt has more than 880,000 followers on the Weibo platform. A panda famous for his mischievous escape attempts. Meng LanIt has about 380,000.

Panda enthusiasts even achieved changes in policies. His activism helped the National Forestry Office to improve standards for the enclosures of the Pandas and prohibit people from paying for embrace pandas.

When the Beijing zoo last year placed metal plates in the windows of the Meng Lan enclosure to avoid escaping, the activists flooded the direct lines of the government and the social networks with complaints. The zoo removed the plates and announced that it would renew the space.

He helped that the promotion often was dyed of nationalism, such as campaigning for the return of a Panda of the Memphis Zoo in 2023.

The National Zoo has been a frequent objective. The zoo’s request to import the Bao Li and Qing Bao pandas caused almost 38,000 comments To the US government, some of them partially written in Chinese. Many commentators mentioned the history of the zoo to use invasive artificial reproduction techniques.

“Pandas are a Chinese symbol,” Xiao said. Activism is “a unique combination of propaganda and protection of a specific species” that can help “promote a political narrative,” he said.

But the careful dance of the government with the fans of the pandas is over. The arrests of last month occurred after the arrest in June of four people who had followed a panda expert in a breeding center in western China, shouting that he was a traitor to work with zoos abroad.

In December, the State News Agency Xinhua He warned fans not to “let an irrational love out of place damage the field of protection of the pandas”, and asked them to “believe a good environment for the development of research on the protection of giant pandas on the basis of science, rationality and peace. ”

Sichuan authorities accused a surprising demographic group, the middle age, of spending too much online.

Police said a woman spread “more than 60 rumors and defamatory videos related to giant pandas since August 2023.” They accused a couple of spreading erroneous information in their live broadcasts in exchange for money. The authorities did not reveal the complete names of the people.

While a few pandas fans have resorted to extreme measures, most have reasonable requests, said Sarah Cheng, a Chinese volunteer in Singapore of the Panda Voices group, which has organized international campaigns for the well -being of the pandas.

“All they want is for pandas to live better,” he said. “They want them to have bamboo and bamboo outbreaks for eating.” But many of his concerns, he said, “to a large extent they have not been addressed or discarded.”