Chinese television, by broadcasting the matches of the Football World Cup, no longer shows images of spectators not wearing a mask, noted Sunday the French press agency AFP, relayed France Info.
According to the same source, the decision was taken after these images provoked the anger of the Chinese who can no longer stand the restrictions against the Covid-19.
China is the last major economy to continue the practice of zero Covid, with brutal confinements of neighborhoods or entire cities, long quarantines and massive testing campaigns. These restrictions are increasingly badly accepted by the Chinese, and many demonstrations have taken place in recent days, notes AFP.
+ However, the uncensored broadcast was available on the internet, including on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok +
To avoid showing Chinese viewers the stadiums full of fans without masks, the CCTV sports channel systematically replaced, in the broadcast of the Japan-Costa Rica match, each image showing people too close by images of the players. or the stadium, or images of crowds taken from far enough away to make it impossible to distinguish faces.
On the other hand, the uncensored retransmission was available on the internet, including on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Tens of millions of people in major cities including Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing were in some form of lockdown on Sunday as World Cup footage showed crowds with no restrictions, the outlet added. , indicating that an open letter wondering if China was indeed “on the same planet” as Qatar and questioning China’s anti-Covid policy has been buzzing in recent days on the very popular WeChat messenger, before be censored by the authorities.
Hundreds of people marched on Sunday, including in Beijing and Shanghai, to protest anti-Covid policies, in a rare show of anger at the state, AFP reported.
Article19.ma