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Social media users in China have criticised the state-owned media, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), over its failure to report on a jailed Shanghai citizen who raped women and held them captive in a brothel for the rich people.
The person, identified as Zhao Fuqiang started out forcing rural women to work in low-cost brothels disguised as hair salons in Shanghai, before he expanded to offer higher-end clients, Radio Free Asia reported. Zhao was sentenced to a suspended death sentence in September 2020 for rape and other offences. "You didn't dare to report on the Red Mansion story in Shanghai ... instead you just keep banging on about the US and the UK, the whole time," one user wrote under a story posted by the CCP's official newspaper, the People's Daily. "This country is getting more and more like North Korea; you really take us for fools," another user agreed to the comment. As reported by Radio Free Asia, another user wondered if the media really is on the side of victims, and the least powerful in society. "The media, in the final analysis, is a part of the system that rules over us, and represents the will of the powers that be," the user wrote. "I really feel that we have a long, long way to go to being civilized, democratic and equal." "The media has lost its voice, and the platforms are pulling hot search topics, all about a huge crime story that everyone already knows about, because it breaks the relevant regulations," the user added. The Chinese media is heavily controlled by the CCP under Xi Jinping's leadership. A recent report from the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has also revealed how journalists are being forced to become the CCP's mouthpiece. As per the report, in order to receive and renew their press cards, journalists will soon have to undergo a 90-hour annual training partly focusing on Xi Jinping's "Thought". Meanwhile, the Chinese government has also unveiled a series of plans that are seen to further consolidate the CCP's control over the media. (ANI)
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