FAKE NEWS | Chinese Malaysians and Singaporeans Urge Mainlanders to Stop Complaining

MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE – As public dissatisfaction in China grows over the government’s draconian lockdowns to arrest the spread of COVID, many Malaysians and Singaporeans of Chinese descent are telling people there to quit complaining.

“Don’t you realize your complaining only makes China look bad in front of the world, and gives ammunition to China’s Western enemies?” asked Ng Ah Chow, a 70-year-old Chinese Malaysian retiree in Kuala Lumpur. “Today, China is widely regarded as having done such a good job handling the pandemic. But if people in China keep whining about being cut off from food and medicine because of the lockdowns, and keep criticizing their testing and vaccination regimes, some might start to think that China isn’t doing such a good job after all.

“Each complaint harms the dignity of the Chinese nation,” she said.

Since March, residents of Shanghai have bristled under a harsh lockdown, with some trapped in their homes, and others in their offices, indefinitely. Censors in China have had to work overtime to erase displays of public anger, with residents under lockdown complaining of being starved of food, medicine, and other necessities, of being forced into uncomfortable quarantine centers after testing positive, and of authorities sealing them inside their apartments with barriers. Some Shanghai residents have taken to screaming out their windows and banging pots and pans at night to voice their frustration. A video uploaded to Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, appeared to show a government drone hovering outside apartments in Shanghai to dissuade this kind of behavior. “Please comply with COVID restrictions,” it announced from a speaker. “Control your soul’s desire for freedom. Do not open the window or sing.” Another viral video sparked public fury when it appeared to show a healthcare worker beating a pet dog to death after its owner was taken to a quarantine center. Outbreaks in Beijing and Guangzhou have sparked fears of a similar lockdown there too.

“These people have no gratitude towards the government that protects and cares for them,” said Andrew Khor, 48, a Chinese Singaporean doctor, who religiously follows CGTN and Global Times. “They don’t appreciate the wise leadership of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, which has lifted 800 million people out of poverty. They don’t know how lucky they are to be living in China, the country that will rule the world in the 21^st century. I know you’re frustrated, but why must you degrade the motherland in public? Just shut up and remember that you already live in paradise.”

Khor defended China’s vaccination programs, insisting that Chinese vaccines Sinovac and Sinopharm are superior to their Western counterparts. He said he took Sinovac until he was basically forced by his government to switch to a more effective vaccine.

Khor also defended China’s zero-COVID strategy, saying that, while strict, it is necessary.

“The most important thing is saving human lives,” he said. “What’s the alternative? To have no control and no discipline at all, like in the decadent USA? Do you know how many billions of people died from COVID there? What a joke! Did you see all those scenes of dead bodies being loaded into refrigerator trucks? Where do you ever see that happening in China?”

When told that this also happened in Hong Kong, Khor waved his hands dismissively. “That doesn’t count,” he said. “Hong Kong isn’t really part of China.”

Khor implored the people of China to remember their Confucian heritage. “Confucius teaches people to put the good of the collective over that of the individual,” he said. “So just suck it up.”

Asked if he would support Singapore’s government reversing course on living with the virus and turning back to a zero-COVID policy if cases there spike, Khor answered: “No way! I’m never going back to that nightmare!”