"Russian-Ukrainian conflict" through the prism of users of the Chinese social network "Weibo"

Li Syuan' ORCID: 0000-0002-0799-0153 PhD in Philology Postgraduate student, Department of Mass Communication, Russian University of People's Friendship 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 21, sq. 3 1042215326@pfur.ru

Baranova Ekaterina Andreevna Doctor of Philology Professor, Department of Communication Management, Russian State Social University 129226, Russia, Moscow, Wilhelm Peak str., 4, sq. 1 kat-journ@yandex.ru

Chinese Internet users have been paying great attention to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict since the beginning of the special military operation. We selected 1,132 posts of the top 10 authors on Weibo under the tag "Russian-Ukrainian conflict", published between February 15 and March 15, 2022 after US intelligence warned of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. Analyzing these posts, we can see the trend of Chinese Weibo users' attention to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as well as the attitude and level of trust of Chinese Internet users towards US intelligence. Using high-quality content analysis, you can find out how the Chinese feel about this event and whether this attitude affects the position of the Chinese government.

Weibo as a window for monitoring Chinese public opinion on international events

Social networks have become an important window for monitoring citizens' opinions about conflicts, and public opinion simultaneously influences their "construction". Some researchers believe that social media can reduce communication costs and increase the speed of information dissemination during conflicts. Social networks have become an important resource in conflicts, fundamentally changing the information available to users about them and shaping the conflicts themselves. ^[1]

Scientists studied the views of pro–Ukrainian and pro-Russian VK users regarding the 2014 Ukrainian crisis and noticed that the former considered it a limited military operation against local rebels, while the latter considered it an all-out war against the Russian population in eastern Ukraine, therefore contradictory views are spreading in VK, and there are completely different expectations on the platform regarding the outcome of the conflict in Donbass. ^[2] As a result, the parties to the conflict also began to strategically use social media to influence public opinion abroad.^[3]

The international agency We Are Social, engaged in research in the field of social media, together with the virtual activity management platform Hootsuite published the report "Digital 2021: China". According to the report, Weibo (Weibo microblog) is the most frequently used social network in China after WeChat.^[4]

According to the "Weibo User Development Report for 2020"^[5], in September 2020 alone, the number of daily active users reached 224 million, and the number of monthly active users was 511 million (for reference: China's population is 1.4 billion people). The main users (48%) are those who were born in the 1990s.

Weibo has turned into today's coffee shop, allowing ideas to be transmitted from one person to another via a social network, rather than through strict control of broadcast media.^[6] The main functions of Weibo include instant receipt and publication of information, thereby realizing the construction of human networks.^[7] Thus, opinion leaders on Weibo are playing an increasingly important role in initiating events and spreading public opinion. They not only direct the production of information on social media, but also influence public opinion and the analysis of public events.^[8]

Compared to another popular social network in China, WeChat, Weibo is more open, and also provides users with privacy settings.

Microblogs of various government agencies, the media and ordinary citizens are published on the Weibo network. However, despite the fact that Weibo is an open public social network, the power of politics and capital influences how events are discussed in it. Until 2014, the opinion leaders among Weibo users were men, mostly over the age of 60 and 70. Most of all, they listened to representatives of the media, scientists, writers and businessmen. After 2014, younger users became Weibo's opinion leaders. On Weibo, opinion leaders repost content to other social networks in order to attract more fans through an open environment and establish close social contacts with them in a short time.^[5] The influence of opinion leaders is not only in cognition and attitude, but can be further realized in behavior.^[9]

The attention of Chinese Weibo users to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict

Weibo users could not ignore the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Interest in him arose from the beginning of Putin's special military operation, but quickly faded with the first round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Prior to the special military operation, the American media published news about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 16. But then Chinese Weibo users did not take this news seriously, and therefore did not pay attention to it. And after President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics and the beginning of the military conflict with Ukraine, almost half of the daily search queries on Weibo were devoted to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. There are five key words related to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict: "Russia Ukraine", "Putin", "Zelensky" and "NATO". Based on the fact that the definition of the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict varies, this article examines the news from February 15, a week before Putin ordered a special military operation, when the US media warned of the possibility of a military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The top five keywords on the topic "Russian-Ukrainian conflict" include: Russia, the United States, Ukraine, Western countries and conflicts. Among them are the most popular topics on Weibo: Russia, Ukraine, Putin, Zelensky, NATO. As of March 15, the hot discussion index^[10] looked like this:

table 1

The trend in the number of Weibo posts about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is shown below:

Figure 1 The trend in the number of Weibo posts about the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict"

The top ten authors who have published the most articles about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict include the following:

Figure 2 Top 10 authors who have published the most posts about the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict"

From the above four tables, it can be seen that when the American media announced a possible Russian attack on Ukraine, Chinese Internet users attached little importance to whether there would be a real military operation on February 16, until Putin ordered a special military operation. The peak in the number of articles on this topic occurred on February 26, on which day Russian officials said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised to send more than 50 percent of his troops to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. After the second round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine ended on March 3 and the parties reached an agreement on the establishment of humanitarian channels for a temporary ceasefire, the number of related articles on Weibo peaked again. After that, the attention to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on Weibo generally decreased. At the same time, the opening of the Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing on March 4 and the convening of China's "two sessions" on March 5 distracted the attention of netizens.

The bloggers who posted news about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict were mostly official. During the month, the Global Network posted the most posts. Leading bloggers, mainly financial, in addition to military topics, also drew attention to the economic impact of the conflict, including economic sanctions against Russia by Western countries in connection with global economic turmoil.

Chinese Weibo users pay attention to the role of the United States in the conflict and do not approve of sanctions against Russia

Through five encodings of the ten most popular content ratings: "Sanctions of Western countries against Russia", "Humanitarian aspect of the conflict", "The role of the United States in the conflict", "Sanctions of multinational corporations against Russia", "China's attitude", the following results are obtained:

Table 2

From the table above, it can be seen that Weibo users are more concerned about the role of the United States in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, including the following points: "why should Russia agree to the presence of NATO in Ukraine if the United States cannot accept a military presence in Cuba?", "the organization of a meeting of influential "Internet celebrities by the United States"for propaganda purposes," "the statement of the US president on February 25 that the US military would not participate in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict," despite further military assistance to Ukraine. Comments on this topic are mostly negative, for example, the most popular comment under this news in People's Daily is "they (USA) have the thickest skin."

The first popular news is devoted to the "boomerang effect" of Europe after the introduction of economic sanctions against Russia. In addition, the United States is also suffering from inflation due to sanctions. In addition to economic sanctions, the news about the imposition of sanctions by Western countries against Russian cats also attracted public attention. Chinese Internet users believe that this sanction is very ridiculous and unreasonable, and Western countries take every opportunity to impose sanctions against Russia. The sanctions against Russia reminded Chinese Internet users of similar tests in the trade war between the United States and China in 2017.

When coding the "humanitarian aspect of the conflict", "two Chinese students shot dead in the dormitory of the Kharkiv Institute of Culture" and "German traffickers harassing Ukrainian refugees" were taken into account. The first news seemed to be a lie, and the second reflects that, despite the statements of Western countries about accepting Ukrainian refugees, they cannot properly resettle them.

In the news about the sanctions imposed by multinational companies against Russia, some Weibo users announced their refusal to use Didi and Lenovo, since both companies decided to suspend service in Russia. In fact, on February 24, the third day after Didi officially announced the closure of its Russian business, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated. The refusal to participate in the Russian market at this time became very delicate, and some European and American companies imposed sanctions against Russia under various "pretexts" due to disputes. Didi's decision to leave Russia at this time was inevitably misinterpreted, and this misunderstanding was raised to a very high level. Thus, this "unfortunate coincidence" was objected to by Weibo users after the official announcement of the closure, so Didi announced a change in its initial decision to withdraw from the Russian market, which it then published on Weibo on February 26. Chinese Internet users are demonstrating an unprecedented scale of "countering sanctions against Russia." On March 3, news appeared on Weibo that the Chinese are rushing to buy "goods of the National Pavilion of Russia" on the Jingdong e-commerce platform (JD.com ). The number of fans of the National Pavilion of Pakistan on the Jingdong platform, which announced that it would not impose sanctions against Russia, has also increased dramatically. Weibo users' comments on this incident mostly express support for Russia in the face of Western economic sanctions, and Internet users who have bought Russian goods mostly praise their quality.

The news about "China's attitude" mainly calls for "the Chinese people to stand firmly on China's position" and "the affairs of the Chinese people are decided by the people themselves." This call is mainly related to Ukraine's manipulation by Western countries in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Among the 100 richest people in Ukraine, 96 escaped, and the remaining 4 were unable to escape due to a court case, reflecting the lack of solidarity in the country. At the same time, Chinese Internet users are urged to remain rational and vigilant against defamation against China in the field of international public opinion. For example, during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, some users disseminated pornographic information under the guise of "humanitarian aid", indicated in their posts that they voluntarily accepted 1-2 Russian or Ukrainian compatriots from humanitarian principles, and at the same time wrote comments about the desire to meet a beautiful and light-skinned Ukrainian woman 18-26 years old. Under the influence of the Western "Great Translation Movement", this small volume of crude content was massively published by Western media. On February 26, the Chinese News Network Weibo published a post "Call for a rational statement about the war" (a total of 43 media outlets responded to the call), which states that in today's internationalized world, words and deeds To a certain extent, each of us is shaped by a national image, and our duty is to responsibly maintain a favorable social environment.

Conclusions: stereotypes about Russia influence the attitude of Chinese Internet users to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict

The image of the state is based on a stable and differentiated political and psychological basis. The core element of the national image is the stereotype that everyone has about other countries. Stereotypes about other countries are largely related to a person's political cognitive schema. Based on certain characters and behavior of members of society, people build their ideas about states and their inhabitants. Such representations are a simplified generalization and can be both positive and negative.^[7] Stereotypes about other countries can strongly influence people's attitudes towards relevant international events. This is especially noticeable in situations where fake news is spreading, which is difficult to distinguish from the truth. In such cases, the stereotype of the state may affect the opinion of citizens. For example, in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, people can choose who to believe, and who is the "victim" and who is the "aggressor", in accordance with their stereotypes. For example, a week before Russia's special operation in Ukraine, the Weibo service, which was certified as the account of the British Prime Minister and had not been updated for more than three months, suddenly turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a message about the crisis in Ukraine: "We are on the edge of a cliff." The next day, the account of the Russian Embassy in China replied that this was another example of an information war by the West against Russia. Weibo users are more inclined to believe the statement of the Russian Embassy in China and its reposts, including President Putin's joke that "Western countries know exactly how many minutes Russia will attack Ukraine." Early accusations by the Western media towards China about the alleged existence of Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang, etc. led to the fact that Chinese Weibo users are more inclined to believe Russia's statements. In the book "Has China Won?" Former UN Security Council President Kishore Mahbubani mentioned that the Western media does not talk much about China's incredible economic development and its contribution to poverty reduction. This is due to the fact that the extremely positive results of this development are not being properly recognized.^[8] That is, Western media avoid reporting on the positive aspects of China and more often pay attention to negative events. A 2021 survey conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Levada Center showed that today 75% of Russians have a positive attitude towards China. Interestingly, attitudes towards China improved dramatically in 2014 against the background of the Ukrainian crisis: in six months, China's positive ratings increased from 55% to 77%. More than half of the respondents (55%) believe that strengthening relations between Russia and China has a positive effect on Russia's international standing.^[9] Friendly relations between Russia and China are based on mutual understanding, which contributes to mutual assistance in difficult economic situations. As a result, Chinese citizens hope to provide real support to Russian citizens in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. It is worth noting that at first, against the background of the lack of a clear statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, due to the different positions of Chinese Weibo users, there were clashes and even quarrels. The rational posts published by the Chinese official media afterward were able to reconcile different opinions and force Weibo users to wait for the situation to develop and an explanation from the official media. Chinese Weibo users' support for the Russian economy and their dissatisfaction with Western sanctions imposed on Russia a month after the start of a special military operation also influenced the statements of the Chinese government. On March 7, 2022, Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that China and Russia will maintain their strategic resolve and continuously promote comprehensive strategic partnership in a new era.^[10] This also means that in the future, China and Russia may hold similar views on international events.

Those born after the 1990s and 2000s make up almost 80% of the users of the Chinese Weibo platform, that is, users under the age of 30 make up more than 80% of Weibo users. The attention and attitude to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict shows that Chinese youth show great favor to Russia, and in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, China is ready to understand Russia's plight and provide concrete support.

Roberta Katz, a senior researcher at Stanford University, Sarah Ogilvy, a senior researcher at Oxford University, and Jane Shaw, a professor and vice president at Oxford University, point out in their new book "Decoding Generation Z: The Art of Living in the Digital Age" that social media has even more influence on the identification of Generation Z. This also means that questions such as "who said and did", "does this person belong to our group?" and other questions indicating identity become a decisive factor in the question of "should we continue to listen", that is, "we live in an era when it is not important that It's the man who says it, and the one who said it." ^[11]This way of judging can confirm a sense of security in the group. In other words, for Generation Z, this is the era of "truth after identity."

During a special military operation, young Chinese Internet users showed that they believed the statements of the Russian media more. This attitude is the result of the long-term presentation by the Chinese media of a friendly image of Russia and testifies to the memory of the Chinese people about the Sino-Soviet friendship. The attitude shown by China's younger generation means that Russia's policy of "Turning to the East" will be very popular in China.