The opera star sings a Russian ballad—in a bombed-out Ukrainian theatre
To be sure, there are many Chinese who back Russia. News of the latest manifestation of China-Russia friendship—a meeting in Vladivostok between Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, and a deputy prime minister from China, Zhang Guoqing—was greeted with typical applause on China’s heavily censored social media. Mr Putin told his guest that relations between the two countries had reached a level “unprecedented” in history. Mr Zhang said political co-operation was “deepening”.
But supporters of Ukraine still find their voices. At least briefly, before censors began scrubbing references to her singing, Ms Wang’s appearance in Russian-controlled Mariupol gave them an opportunity to speak out. On Weibo, a Twitter-like service, some users were quick to attack her choice of venue for singing such a song. “Katyusha”, as it is known, was used to inspire Soviet troops going to battle with the Germans during the second world war.
Some of Ms Wang’s critics have large followings and, therefore, much to lose should their accounts be shut down—a common form of punishment by censors. One is a retired professor living in Xinjiang, a far-western region. He told his 137,000 followers that Ms Wang would “be nailed to the pillar of shame in history”. Another Weibo user, with nearly 1m followers, accused her of being “simply out of her mind”.
China’s foreign ministry is keeping quiet about the incident. For all its cosiness with Mr Putin, China calls itself a neutral observer of the war and wants to earn kudos for helping to end hostilities . China is even talking to the Vatican, with which it does not have diplomatic relations, about ways to resolve the conflict. The pope has sent a senior envoy on a rare official visit to Beijing to discuss the topic.
In a post on Weibo, Hu Xijin, a well-known pro-government commentator, reflected what Chinese officials are probably thinking. He told his nearly 25m followers that Ms Wang’s behaviour risked creating a “sense of involvement” in the conflict among Chinese people, which is “not in accordance with reality and not what China needs”. The war in Ukraine is “not China’s war”, said Mr Hu, who is a former editor-in-chief of, a nationalist tabloid in Beijing.
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