Apologies if this is an incredibly naive question: How aware are people in China of what has been censored from them? I've heard of 'tank man' as a common example of this. Students studying/traveling abroad from China encounter the imagery and western take on events and have just never heard of it before.
There is a pretty good video by the "Asian Boss" YouTube channel [1] where they interview Chinese people about the war in Ukraine.
I found the opinions much more polarized than expected. People do seem to reiterate that China and Russia are a national counter force against the USA on the geopolitical spectrum, but not everyone manifests support for Putin.
> How aware are people in China of what has been censored from them?
I believe this is directly correlated to the amount of people that speak English. Eg. If you look at Russian tech, they are very aware of state censorship.
I've read that the Ukrainian war is a problem for China for exactly the opposite reason: the invasion of a sovereign country by another is somehow like outside countries (the US, Japan) supporting Taiwan, which China claims is a part of their country rather than an independent country. I'm not sure I really buy into that argument, though; your suggested viewpoint seems at least as valid.
> I wonder if this because they don’t want anyone discuss sovereignty when they might be planning their own invasion of Taiwan.
I doubt that, because we're talking about the Chinese internet. I'm sure the PRC government has been very careful to make sure that all voices there consistently deny Taiwan's sovereignty. IIRC, "little pinks" on it will go into outraged attack mode if anyone says anything (even outside of China) that even subtly implies otherwise.
My guess is this is a reflection of an official position against the Western led international order.
>On March 5 Weibo said it had suspended more than 1,000 accounts that published "vulgar jokes" and "content that is overly insulting and warmongering."
Of course Reuters tucks this away as final sentence. Anyway "calls for peace" isn't being barred. What does seem to be barred are posts that criticizes or undermines Putin government - both included examples, one that disparages Putin directly and another that repost anti-war demonstrations in St Petersburg. Things that undermine central gov policy. For obvious reasons.
Meanwhile youtube has banned Channel 1, NTV, TNT, RT, Moscow 24 and even "Spas", and are banning users that post ''misinformation'' about Russia's actions in Ukraine.
