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China is paying U.S. social media influencers to promote Beijing Winter Olympics and "good China-US relations"
2021-12-14 00:00:00
The Chinese government is paying the consulting firm Vippi Media $300,000 to oversee a social media campaign to compensate prominent TikTokers, Twitch Streamers, and Instagram influencers for saying nice things about China leading up to the Beijing Winter Olympics.
From The Washington Free Beacon:
China is waging the social media blitz amid growing threats to boycott the games. The United States, Canada, and Australia this month announced a diplomatic boycott over China's human rights abuses and the recent disappearance of a Chinese tennis star who accused a Communist Party official of rape. Human rights groups have asked NBC and other TV broadcasters not to air the Beijing Olympics, which begin Feb. 4. American companies—Coca-Cola, Visa, Intel, and others—also face pressure to pull out of sponsorship deals for the games. Jaswal opposes the boycott, which he says would have "no impact" on China's behavior and will only "aggravate" Beijing.
The consulate's hiring of Vippi marks a new frontier for China's propaganda initiative, which has gone into overdrive in recent years amid growing scrutiny of its treatment of Uyghurs, its crackdown of pro-democracy groups, and its refusal to allow investigations into the origins of coronavirus.
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