A.S. Santhosh This article raises serious concerns about China’s efforts to drive its narrative in Telugu States using YouTube vloggers. A Telugu YouTuber recently revealed that he earned 30 …
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Chinese propaganda arm pushing its narrative using Indian vloggers. Watch out for these snakes and their sponsors from the CCP.
This article raises serious concerns about China’s efforts to drive its narrative in Telugu States using YouTube vloggers. A Telugu YouTuber recently revealed that he earned 30 lakhs in a month for making positive videos about China. It is important to remember that these YouTubers are not necessarily working for the Chinese government. In many cases, they are simply being paid to promote Chinese products or services or narrative. However, the end result is the same: China is using its economic power to influence public opinion in India.
“I admire Communist ideology and like Mao very much since my NCC training during my schooling days. ..I strongly believe that only communism can bring change in India” – This is
the statement given by Telugu YouTuber Anvesh Chinni in one of his videos recorded in China referring to Mao Zedong, the former dictator of China. The world knows that Mao was responsible for the deaths of nearly 60 to 80 million of Chinese due to starvation, persecution, prison labour, and mass executions, which drew criticism for his totalitarian rule.
‘How China Engages South Asia: Themes, Partners and Tools‘ – A report published by the Center for Social & Economic Progress on 3rd May 2023 explains how China is using social media to drive its narrative in India and distort facts about the border dispute. The document contains a chapter on the use of social media by China. It says that the Communist Party of China’s external messaging is targeting Indian audiences on traditional and new media platforms after President Xi Jinping in 2013 said “
Tell China’s Story Well”. The report concludes that China’s influence campaign is a serious threat to Indian sovereignty and democracy. It calls on the Indian government to take steps to counter China’s influence and protect its citizens from the spread of Chinese propaganda.
China lost its global reputation due to Covid outbreak from its soil. To regain its image, it started a self defined narrative across the globe using various methods, one of such is peddling through travel vloggers.
YouTubers have embarked on global travel adventures to showcase the geographical, cultural, and traditional highlights of various nations. In a similar way, some Indian YouTube vloggers started touring China. Though it is not a surprise that Indians visit China, an important point to be noted is that in the last 3-4 months, i.e., just before general elections in India, there has been a sudden increase in the number of popular Indian YouTube vloggers who have travelled to China and reporting from there.
Apart from the vloggers touring this communist nation, few Indians residing in China are already making Youtube Vlogs in Indian languages. Surprisingly, China refuses to grant access to journalists for tours but permits YouTube vloggers to enter the country. These vloggers take the liberty to criticize Indian politics from foreign soil, especially from China, a nation that has occupied our territories and poses significant border and economic threats to us. These targeted videos praise China with an impression that their policies are better than India.
This same narrative is picked by pro-Chinese media with an agenda to disseminate further to reach masses. At this point, nationalist must be critical of the content that we consume emanating from China.
On July 23, ‘Nava Telangana’, a Telugu leftist daily published a special story
titled ‘Prapancha Yatrikudu’ (World Traveller) praising Telugu YouTube vlogger Anvesh for his China travel series. This China series has 23 videos starting from June 12 -July 18, 2023. In his videos, he uttered unnecessary and provoking statements on Indian politics and its leadership, suspected to be deliberate attempts or scripted.
On June 22, while visiting China National Museum in Beijing,
Anvesh’s opening comments were highly objectionable.
“
Oh Indian, listen carefully… India and China, both were born together. China adopted a revolutionary ideology, and India adopted Democracy. Where are we and where are they ? While both countries are equal in population, India is lagging in terms of Economy, Defense and Technology. What is the reason for this?”.
In a sarcastic tone, he says “Listen attentively, my fellow Indians… India and China, born at the same time. China embraced a revolutionary ideology, and India chose democracy. Despite having similar populations, India is far behind in terms of economy, defense, and technology. …Why do you think this is the case?”
In this series, touring with his Chinese girlfriend, Anvesh often proudly claims to be influential in getting access to highly restricted zones which are generally prohibited to foreigners.
In his video description, he proudly asserts that you won’t find anything like this on YouTube since videos in the National Museum are not allowed. Despite the strict restrictions imposed by the Chinese Government, he claims to be influential and boldly enters the China National Museum with a video camera to record its interior.
This kind of statements and description on his YouTube videos strengthens the suspicion that either he is fooling the Chinese government and its security or part of their conspiracy to build a positive opinion on Chinese infrastructure portrayed on social media. Is breaking the law an adventurism and special privilege in China for this selective vlogger only?
Without any guilt, this vlogger says he is free to walk on
empty streets of Wuhan Fish Market, which is not less than an act to whitewash the Chinese made Covid 19 pandemic that killed millions across the globe. This specific video seems to be a scripted attempt to create a positive impact on viewers that ‘China is not a wilful offender of this huge pandemic, but it is a victim of a framed conspiracy’.
These comments are like mocking the international security, health agencies and acclaimed scientists who were denied access by China to visit the same Wuhan Fish market and its lab to find the origins of the pandemic.
Criticism of Indian Governance:
In “
China Vs India Comparison” video, he takes the avatar of a political commentator, with zero knowledge on Indian politics, cultural heritage and its social system. His unwanted heavy criticism appears to be rooted in a superficial understanding on some serious issues like poverty, wealth distribution and social structure.
From Chinese soil, he calls to abolish the reservation system, a key plank in addressing the social issues. It is a clear attempt at arousing mutual distrust amongst various sections of the society and an insult to the Indian Constitution and its founding fathers,
By taking the names of successful Indian businessman like Ambani, and Adani in a cynical tone (which Congress and Communists usually do) he dares to suggest the Indian government to follow the Chinese communist model of land distribution and acquisition policy in which Government should be the sole owner of the entire land across the nation.
IT Breach – Intentionally Ignored by the Chinese Government?
In his attempt to create an illusion for Telugu viewers of absolute freedom within China, he conveniently conceals a crucial truth – the Chinese Communist Party imposed a blanket ban on YouTube and various other social media platforms. The pressing question arises: did he resort to Virtual Private Networks to upload a series of 23 videos on his YouTube account? If such measures were indeed taken, how did the Chinese government fail to detect this ongoing breach of their own country’s IT regulations by a foreign individual? Or perhaps, it leads one to ponder whether there was tacit approval or even encouragement from the Chinese government itself.
There are plenty of news surfacing on China’s crackdown on
VPNs in its country with heavy penalty.
Suppression of Facts:
YouTuber Anvesh Chinnaclaims that there are 10 highly developed cities in China that no Indian city can rival. However, despite his intentions to showcase them,
due to pressure he is not doing so. He assures viewers that he will show these cities after the general elections in India.
In another video, he tried to influence viewers’ perception of China as an enemy nation to India. He poses questions like, “Who exactly told us that China is our enemy – was it Modi or Amit Shah?” Additionally, he references prominent figures such as AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, as well as opposition leaders Chandra Babu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan. Anvesh advises the Telugu audience that true freedom lies in avoiding verbal wars between the party-workers of these political leaders.
He praises the Chinese government for freedom to its citizens, but he wilfully suppresses the pathetic situation of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. province of China. It is a globally acknowledged fact that China has been committing inhuman crimes against its own citizens, threatening to wipe out religious and ethnic minorities like Uyghur and Tibetan Buddhists. Uyghur population and other Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region are denied basic fundamental rights like free speech, freedom to practice and propagate religion in China.
While praising the freedom given by its Government to the people of China, he wilfully suppresses the drastic situation of Uyghur Muslims in the XingXian province of China.It is a well known fact that China has been accused of committing inhuman crimes not only against its own citizens, but also religious and ethnic minorities like Uyghur and Tibetan Buddhists. Brutal measures have been put in place against the Uyghur population and other Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang. Fundamental rights of free speech, freedom to practice and propagate religion are completely absent in China.
While showing the Tiananmen Square area he says that Chinese officials ordered him not to discuss its history and hence he did not utter a single word about it. Tiananmen Square remained a silent witness of the infamous Massacre committed by the Chinese government on its own thousands of students in the year 1989. The protests by student groups started on 15 April and lasted until 4 June, at which point Chinese government troops carried out a crackdown on the demonstrators around the city and the Square in what is often referred to as the Tiananmen Square massacre.
It is a recent phenomenon that Indian vloggers who travel to China and report on its diversified geography, culture and lifestyle. Even the vloggers praising Chinese is no surprise, but things like holding a camera on the soil of a country that we consider to be our main enemy and making videos pointing out India’s internal political and socio-cultural and economic issues, criticizing government policies and giving free advice to the Government of India on things that India should learn from China is a new and strange development. This is a regular theme in the videos of YouTube vlogger Anvesh who runs the channel ‘Naa Anveshana’.
How to counter China’s influence operations:
– Be critical of the content that we consume. When we see a video or read an article that is promoting China in a positive light, we should ask ourselves why?. Is the content being funded by the Chinese government? Is it being shared by people who are known to be sympathetic to China?
– Be aware of the ways in which China is trying to manipulate public opinion. China is using a variety of methods to influence public opinion, including social media, the entertainment industry, and think tanks. We need to be aware of these methods so that we can protect ourselves from their effects.
– Support Indian Nationalist media outlets and content creators. There are many Indian media outlets and content creators who are producing high-quality content that is critical of China. We should support these outlets and creators by watching their content and sharing it with others.
By taking these steps, we can help to protect ourselves from China’s influence operations and promote a more informed and critical public discourse about China.
“ఏ దేశమేగినా ఎందు కాలిడినా ఏ పీఠమెక్కినా ఎవ్వరేమనినా పొగుడురా నీతల్లి భూమి భారతిని నిలుపురా నీ జాతి నిండు గౌరవము”
(yE dhEshameginA endhu kAlidinA, yE peetamekkinA evvarEmaninA
pogadarA nee thalli bhoomi BhAratini, niluparA nee jAthi nindu gouravamu)
“No matter whatever country you travel, no matter whatever the position you attain, always praise your motherland Ma Bharati and make her honour be protected”
Above is the popular Telugu poem from “Janmabhoomi” written by famous poet Rayaprolu Subbarao that always stays in the hearts of all people and inspires us.
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