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Last week I was invited into a WeChat group mainly for Chinese migrants living in Australia, giving me a unique look at how they view the Ukraine war. The group logo has a Chinese national flag, so unsurprisingly their views are very pro-China, pro- Communist Party.
As the group members are mostly “little pinkies” (nickname for those who support the authoritarian Chinese government) even though they live in Australia, their views are much in line with Beijing’s, meaning pro-Russia, sharing many pro-Russia posts and propaganda, such as these
Naturally they are sharing the Tulsi Gabbard interview on Fox. Does Tulsi still deny being a Russian asset?
They share a prominent Chinese nationalist scholar Si Ma Nan’s pro-Russia video praising Putin’s military genius
They share video from Chinese media sources about the prowess of Russia precision attack and the decency of Russian tanks letting other vehicles pass at the Red Army’s own risk
They marvel at Russia’s propaganda skills with a video about Russian soldiers sharing food with Ukrainian children or Ukrainian POWs reflecting on their sins at a memorial for children killed by the evil Ukrainian Government…. Note these are all from Chinese state media accounts
They share a video about Russian youths protesting about the evil sanctions m.bilibili.com/video/BV11r4y1z7ox?p=1&share_medium=android&share_plat=android&share_session_id=15c595...
They share a video of a supposed phone tape phone call by Zelenskyy to arrange for his families to flee abroad
They share a comparison of the devastation of US bombing in Syria and serene and the peaceful scene at Kyiv spared by Russian attack. See? How nice the Russians are!
In response to a WeiBo post from a Chinese scholar who opines that history shows those who started a war always lost it, they regret that they used to be brainwashed by him
They mock the lack of weapons sent by the US (despite the other Chinese narrative that Biden is the warmonger )
They share the link to RT’s account on Bilibili
They suggest buying Russian food as a way of supporting Putin but worry that Russian food tastes terrible
They share a lame cartoon from Global Times (China’s state media tabloid)
They share a video paean to Putin from the account of a Chinese mining equipment company(!), the title is “Russia’s eagle at 70, burning for his country one last time! The legends are even more inspiring than a novel!”
Another one showing Putin being a maestro at piano, from the official account of a Chinese incubator firm (don’t ask)
Some worry that the way western media opposes Russia makes it difficult for the motherland to take back Taiwan
They share a state media video of Chinese citizens evacuating Ukraine, “ getting clear passage once one shows Chinese passport”. Of course no one questions why China didn’t warn them to leave BEFORE the war
They share a tweet about Chechen soldiers beheading the Azovites
Some sane person posts a story about a newly discovered case of serious domestic abuse in China, a (possibly abducted) woman held in cage by the husband. Of course, no one responds.
They cheer on the vandalising of the pro-Ukraine poster at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing
More Russian propaganda and whataboutism
They share a story about supposed Ukrainian Nazis killing people fleeing their city
Bear with me for 20 minutes as I wash the dishes and walk the dog before coming back to the thread. There will be plenty more and a dramatic ending
Someone misunderstands a Arab tankie tweet praising China’s walled off internet against info warfare, attacking him as stupid and evil, asking doesn’t he know the western web-sphere is controlled by the US, before claiming the Arabs love China because we buy their oil
Some side discussions about the deficiencies of democratic system
They veer off to attack Google for highlighting Sydney’s Mardi Gras, of course referencing the evil 白左. One idiot thinks the letter Q stands for Queen, extreme feminism(?), proving again my thesis that the pinkies share a lot of common values with the hard right in the west
They accuse the 1989 generation as too subservient to America and too stupid to see the 9- dimension chess game Putin and Xi are playing, and claim the West boycott Russian ballet only because their dancers are straight while women
They share Russian propaganda from Tass
They post a common whataboutism reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis, without noticing that there are no US missiles in Ukraine before the invasion
It’s past midnight here in Sydney so I have to sleep now. Will continue in the morning. Thanks for reading so far.
They share a fake news post from a prominent pinkie account “台湾傻事”(Stupid things happening in Taiwan) about no NATO country’s media reported the anti-NATO protest in Italy, omitting the fact that it was organised by the Italian Communist Party and the Guardian covered it
Amid endless Russian war propaganda, someone posts a weird video about how woman gets addicted to the man after sex
They share a meme complaining the West has control of the media narrative of the war, claiming the West doesn’t represent the world.
They claim the applause for Biden’s SOTU speech is staged and coordinated (fact check: mostly true). I hate to tell them what will happen to a Chinese Member of People’s Congress if he/she doesn’t clap for Xi’s address.
I am sorry if I don't reply to your posts on time. This thread is gonna take me ages. I have five days' worth of materials, and this is only day two
Someone should tell @jack and @twittersupport to improve Twitter's picture editing function. Just learn from what WeChat is doing. Their built-in cropping, marking, pixelating and preview functions are much easier and handy.
I should point out a WeChat group is a bit like a private group on Facebook. It's closed to the public and one can only get in by invitation. That's perhaps why people are much more frank airing their views and bigotries than in the open. I have masked their names in the pics.
More celebration of the news that JD’s Russia store has sold out thanks to Chinese buyers eager to support Putin
A casual racist post about domesticating the 阿三 (derogative term for Indians) to make them China’s ally
After I post the anti-war tweet of Russian opposition leader @navalny, they react with mock praise for his “English skills”.


They call IOC a Nazi organisation for banning Russian athletes.
Another heart felt tribute to the Great Putin, from a finance magazine in Beijing: Ukraine has never produced a great statesman like Putin
I am sorry if there are repeats in the thread. I am new to making twitter thread and it seems to accidentally branch off to different directions. I am trying to move those back to the main thread
They quote a report about a city under siege by Russian artillery, saying “kill all the Nazis”. In response to
@ZelenskyyUa
’s claim that 9,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, one labels the President “motherfucking rumor mongering actor worse than a prostitute”
They share a press release from the Russian defence ministry, claiming Ukrainian Government has detained Indian students as hostages
A meme from Taiwan asking why Taiwan has to buy expensive US weapons while Ukraine is getting it for free. A bit like asking why I have to buy house insurance when my neighbour gets emergency accomodation after his uninsured house is destroyed in a fire.
While they embrace Russia propaganda without questions, they are eager to challenge a Chinese video blogger in Ukraine's complaint about slow evacuation, accusing him of faking his location
Now a video from a subsidiary of Xinhua News of Putin telling Modi that Ukraine is holding Indian students hostage
Compared to the mostly positive reception here on Twitter, quite different reaction on WeChat where people criticised me for breaching the privacy of those pinkies. My response:
A voice of reason and support on WeChat
Sharing unverified report from Tass that a Chinese citizen has been shot by Ukrainian thugs
Sharing a prominent wolf warrior account’s praise for Russia’s genius invasion plan, a video mocking Zelanskyy’s acting career, and one Chinese blogger quoting Russian media praising China’s superiority over the US
One shares another pro-Russia video titled “the end days for Ukrainian Nazis are near” with another one replying with clapping and comment “iron fist of justice”
yidianzixun.com/article/V_0ptSuqYr?__iflowSource__=oppo&distribution=oppo&__devId__=31271919&__docId_...
They share an unsourced report about Ukrainian government bombing and killing Russian speaking population and complain that the western media don’t report this atrocity
One dude is so outraged about the western censorship of RT on YouTube he is testing it with a Dutch VPN to see if the channel is still available
A video from China’s state TV “debunking” western media lies on Russia, a report from state tabloid repeating Russian Defence Ministry press releases, and a social media video exhorting Chinese to follow the government line that it is not an invasion
The video’s message is it is not important whether Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an invasion or not, it’s paramount we Chinese stay United behind our government because this world is a Darwinian forest and only the strong survives and the weak gets eaten
I should point out that not everyone in the group is pro-Russia. This person notes that 144 nations at the UN voted to condemn Russian aggression
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