Chinese State Media Accidentally Releases Censorship Rules on Russia–Ukraine Coverage

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As the Ukraine–Russia crisis escalates, the Chinese regime has found itself in an awkward position.

While Beijing has deepened ties with Moscow, it’s also cautious to avoid blowback by being seen as directly supporting a unilateral move to seize sovereignty of another nation—given the regime’s own designs in absorbing self-ruled Taiwan.

While it’s expected that reporting on such a sensitive geopolitical event would be filtered to meet the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) propaganda needs, a recent social media post—released to the public apparently by accident—provides a rare glimpse of how the CCP’s messaging gets channeled to the masses.

Horizon News, a video news network under state-run Beijing News, on Feb. 22 instructed staff to avoid posting any Ukraine-related content on China’s Twitter-like Weibo that may come across as unfavorable to Russia or pro-Western.

“Let me review your draft before you first put it out,” read the Weibo post that has now been deleted. Commentaries, it added, must be “carefully selected and controlled,” while topic selections should follow the lead of People’s Daily, Xinhua, and CCTV—three of the country’s foremost Party mouthpieces.

“Whoever publishes them will be held responsible,” the post said, noting that each post should be monitored for at least two days.

Russian military vehicles are seen loaded on train platforms some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the border with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Russia’s southern Rostov region on Feb. 23, 2022. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)

Although China is well-known for its tight restrictions on press freedom, the post provides a rare, if small, revelation into the workings of Chinese media machinery, and the inner anxieties of the regime as it watches politically fraught international developments unfold.

“In the Ukraine crisis, a slight nudge will trigger a chain reaction,” wrote Ming Jinwei, a former senior editor for Xinhua, in his personal blog, cautioning China to carefully handle relations with all parties involved to avoid “inviting trouble.”

China, he said, must “back Russia morally and emotionally but without overly provoking America and the European Union,” he said.

While “problems principally came from America,” he said, the current situation is working in Beijing’s favor in its rivalry with the United States, and it would be unwise to draw Washington’s anger.

“Talk more, do less,” was the advice from Ming, who advised Chinese diplomats to use private channels to convey their sentimental support for Russia and encourage dialogue in public settings.

It’s a roadmap that the regime has more or less appeared to follow.

In a brief statement on Feb. 23, Zhang Jun, Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, urged all sides to exercise restraint and “seek reasonable solutions … through peaceful means on the basis of equality and mutual respect.”

Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya (C) fist bumps Ambassador Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative of China to the U.N., as US ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield (L) and Permanent Representative of Norway to the U.N. Mona Juul (2nd L) look on during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the Ukraine crisis, in New York, Feb. 21, 2022.  The United Nations is holding an emergency Security Council meeting on the Ukraine crisis after Russia recognized two breakaway regions there and ordered its military to act as peacekeepers. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

As Russia moved troops into two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine that it declared as “independent,” Ukraine has declared a state of emergency and urged all its citizens to leave Russia immediately.

Since Feb. 21, President Joe Biden has imposed a slew of sanctions against the two breakaway Ukrainian regions, along with state-owned Russian banks and Russian elites. On Feb. 22, the Biden administration ordered more troops into Eastern Europe amid fears of a Russian invasion into Ukraine.

Facing growing isolation from the world, Russia has bonded closer with China. On the opening day of the Winter Olympics, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin flew to Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart, which ended with the two leaders announcing a “no limits” partnership.