A Weibo post on the United Nations account summarising the WHO chief’s remark that China’s zero tolerance approach to Covid-19 was not sustainable was censored on Wednesday morning, soon after it was posted.
“We don’t think that it is sustainable considering the behaviour of the virus and what we now anticipate in the future,” World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing on Tuesday.
“We have discussed this issue with Chinese experts. And we indicated that the approach will not be sustainable ... I think a shift would be very important.”
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A Chinese post on the United Nations Weibo account giving notice of the comments was removed and soon after being censored, internet users searching for the post were given a notification that the content was illegal.
While traces of the removal were then further erased from Weibo – China’s Twitter-like social media platform – many Weibo users complained that not only were screen captures of the UN post removed, but even pictures of Tedros became a target of China’s sophisticated social media censorship apparatus.
“Even some of the Ghebreyesus pictures were censored – will this one stay?” said one Weibo user, as he posted a general picture of the director general.
Censors target Weibo alert of WHO comments on China’s zero tolerance
Another wrote: “Even the United Nations news centre [account] and Ghebreyesus were censored, it is getting worse”.
But most internet users expressed their frustrations with Tedros, with criticism including comments that he turned a blind eye to the deaths caused by Covid-19.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has made clear recently that China’s zero-tolerance policy would stay.
More from South China Morning Post:
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- NFTs preserve Shanghai’s Covid-19 lockdown record from China censorship
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