China Campaigns Against Western Media and Tech Firms

As the result of a two-pronged campaign coming out of China against Western media and the technology companies that create devices from which the Chinese access news and entertainment, it may become increasingly difficult for outside companies to operate within the country. As part of the ongoing campaign, Chinese state-fun broadcaster CCTV aired a critical documentary last week regarding Apple’s customer service.

“At around 8:20 p.m., just after the broadcast, Chinese celebrities started bashing Apple on Twitter-like microblogging site Weibo,” reports Quartz. “This began looking orchestrated when Taiwanese American actor Peter Ho seemed to accidentally leave the instruction ‘post around 8.20’ on his Weibo comment.”

China’s newly installed president Xi Jinping and his administration seem hostile toward U.S. tech companies because of the direct competition with domestic companies. “Separately, the nation’s new leaders also want Western media to quit reporting on China’s inequality and official corruption. Having not been chosen by the public, they are paranoid about coverage that may affect their credibility,” explains the article.

But not all in China were impressed by the documentary, some instead turning to the Web to complain about CCTV, rather than Apple. “Talk about avoiding the big issues,” posted one Weibo user. “Focusing on Apple when we are breathing polluted air… drinking poisoned milk…”

The Chinese government has also taken to lashing out against Google and its Android operating system, which currently has a 90 percent market share in China. Additionally, China’s military is suspected of hacking into a slew of Western companies, including Apple and Facebook.

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