Mao-loving websites are in a grey zone between propaganda and dissent
They are often useful to the Communist Party, but sometimes argue with its organs
Red song society is redder than red. For more than a decade the privately run website and its social-media accounts have been pumping out articles that praise Mao Zedong and Marxism more enthusiastically than most Communist Party officials do. It sees no fault with the late dictator; it attacks capitalism—and its growth in China—with a vengeance. “Sing red songs; promote righteous ways” is its motto, handwritten at the top of the home page.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Seeing red”
From the August 20th 2022 edition
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