China reporter cyberbullied over Abe tears in reported suicide attempt

Tan KW

Publish date: Fri, 22 Jul 2022, 05:52 PM

A Chinese freelance journalist and influencer based in Japan has apparently attempted to take her own life after she was cyberbullied for her sympathetic reporting of the death of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Zeng Ying’s status is unknown but her secretary from DDBK, the Tokyo-based company she founded, did not deny reports of an attempted suicide and said on Thursday Zeng had been in deep “physical and psychological pain”.

On Tuesday Chen Lan, a well-known writer and friend of Zeng’s, shared an alleged suicide note from the reporter on her verified Weibo social media account. According to the note - which Chen said had been posted on her friend’s WeChat - Zeng had experienced depression since 2018 and from the beginning of July felt she could no longer deal with regular work and life.

For more than a week Zeng had been the target of widespread cyberbullying by nationalist Chinese, following her live-stream reporting on July 8 for Shanghai’s online media outlet The Paper of Abe’s assassination during an election speech in Nara.

While recounting how beneficial Abe’s policies had been for Japanese citizens and his contributions to China-Japan relations, Zeng paused and sobbed. She was immediately attacked on social media. A Weibo hashtag titled “Zeng Ying cries for Shinzo Abe while live-streaming” was read more than 800,000 times.

Some online commenters called for her to “go after Abe” as she seemed sad about his death. Others called her a traitor, asking “why should a Chinese cry for Abe?”

Zeng was also defended, with other online comments to the effect that she had acted unprofessionally and may have different opinions but did not deserve such strongly-worded attacks.

Zeng later apologised on her social media account for being “unprofessional” by showing personal emotion on a public platform and “hurting everyone’s feelings”.

According to the note shared by Chen, Zeng wrote: “I’ve had a worthy life, I’m only in my 30s, besides getting married and having kids, I’ve experienced everything.”

Chen said she had tried to contact her friend several times, but with no response. Chen said that before the alleged suicide attempt she had asked Zeng about the incident and was told the journalist knew Abe’s wife personally and was shocked by the politician’s sudden death.

Neither The Paper nor the Chinese embassy in Japan responded to interview requests.

China’s nationalistic online community continued to attack Zeng after the news broke that she may have been driven to suicide.

Posts attacking her name are still rampant on Weibo, while her own account - with more than 2.4 million followers - on the social media platform has been deactivated because of a “violation of relevant laws and regulations”.

After Abe’s assassination, Chinese nationalists celebrated his death online. Many see him as representative of a Japanese right-wing in denial about the country’s war crimes.

“Sorry, we normal Chinese don’t feel sympathy for Abe. As a Japanese politician who was hostile to China and was killed by another Japanese, feeling happy should be the reaction of a normal Chinese,” one commenter said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian refused to comment on the online remarks at a press conference on July 8 - the day of Abe’s death - but said the incident should not be linked to China-Japan relations.

Chinese leaders sent an official message of condolence to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, saying Abe had worked to “improve China-Japan relations when he was in office”.

President Xi Jinping said he had “reached important common understanding with Abe on building a China-Japan relationship that meets the need of the new era”.

However, China did not send an official to Abe’s funeral and protested the attendance of Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai Ching-te, accusing Taipei of trying to engage in “political manipulation”.

- SCMP

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