China’s Communist Youth League (CYL) took aim at the U.S., warning netizens through a five minute video that Washington has been conspiring for a “colour revolution” in China.
The video went viral and was viewed over 10 million times within 24 hours, while the hashtag “warn colour revolutions” on Sina Weibo — the Chinese equivalent of Twitter — has been viewed nearly 300 million times.
Analysts say that the CYL appears to be spearheading the battle for the hearts- and-minds of young Chinese, with an effective deployment of social media tools.
The state-run Global Times reported that the video argues that human rights lawyers and forces — supporting “Tibetan independence” and “Hong Kong independence” — are using issues such as the South China Sea arbitration as tools of destabilisation.
The video, made by an Australia-based Chinese researcher, claims that the U.S. is attempting to overthrow the Chinese government through a “colour revolution”. The recording also trashes pro-democracy movements through images of the plight of Syrian refugees and others, which it says is a result of “U.S. meddling” in countries such as Iraq and Syria.
The posting is part of a recent CYL social media offensive to target the youth. The organisation posted a series of videos on its official Sina Weibo page in tune with the trial in Tianjin of attorneys belonging to the Beijing-based Fengrui Law Firm.
Youth League offensive
Zhou Shifeng, chief lawyer of the firm, was convicted of “subverting state power” and sentenced to seven years in prison on August 4 by the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Western human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have slammed the detentions. But the CYL has counter-attacked through a string of videos, including one which blamed U.S. diplomats for organising protests outside the Tianjin court.
CYL’s activism on the social media follows a recent decision by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to revamp the organisation. On August 2, the Central Committee of the CPC released a document proposing a downsized and cohesive leadership, which would encourage the CYL to draw more members from the “frontlines” or the grassroots. The 88-million-strong CYL plays a critical role for the recruitment of new members into the Party.
