On Chinese language social media, the word “weak spot” (condition, run out) is steadily impaired metaphorically to the following population contributors—in particular kids—impaired as leverage by means of crowd safety, circumstance safety, or govt government to prohibit people from talking out, attractive in activism, or pursuing alternative actions that the government don’t approve of. Within the generation, the method used to be principally impaired by means of circumstance safety forces towards higher-profile activists and dissidents in China, however lately, it kind of feels to have filtered right down to native crowd safety bureaus, and is being impaired towards public suspected of all means of stripling “transgressions,” together with posting feedback vital of native government on Chinese language or out of the country social media. Additionally it is once in a while impaired as a device of transnational repression, comparable to within the contemporary case of prevalent X (previously Twitter) blogger Professor Li isn’t your mentorwho lives in Italy however whose population has been threatened.
The time period “weak spot” not too long ago surfaced with regards to a shopper backlash towards unexpected spikes in herbal gasoline utilization next unused “smart” gasoline meters had been put in in numerous towns. Customers clash with exorbitant gasoline expenses started posting their expenses on-line, prominent to an reliable investigation, the sacking of the top of Chongqing Gasoline Crew, and the oath of refunds to affected shoppers. A girl in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, who posted her gasoline invoice on-line then gained a threatening talk over with from the native policedifficult to grasp the place her kids attended college, the place her husband labored, and alternative non-public details about the population. The police then contacted her husband’s manager at paintingsin an extra display of power. A WeChat article by means of current-affairs blogger Fan Dang mentioned 3 ways impaired by means of regulation enforcement to intimidate the girl into peace: (1) attractive in “threats and intimidation” (恐吓, kǒnghè), (2) leveraging her population as “weak spots” (软肋, ruǎnlèi), and (3) repressing independence of accent below the guise of “fraud-prevention” (anti-fraud, fǎn zhà).
“Weak spot” may be integrated as one of the crucial 104 entries in our contemporary e-book, China Virtual Occasions Lexicon: twentieth Per annum Version. The whole access is reproduced underneath.
vulnerable spot ( vulnerable spot, ruǎn lèi)
Old metaphorically—just like “soft underbelly” or “Achilles’ heel”—to the following anyone or one thing that may be impaired as leverage towards public, in particular the ones regarded as “troublesome” by means of the police or govt government.
The time period received recognition in November 2022, next a viral video visible group committee contributors from Tiantongyuan, a gigantic suburb alike Beijing, discussing methods to intimidate native citizens to implement compliance all the way through the COVID lockdown. Smiling as they talk about a undeniable native “troublemaker,” the committee contributors discuss “locking him up in a dark place for three days” and gleefully brainstorm tactics to cow the person by means of threatening retaliation towards his son. One says pointedly, “His son is his weak spot.”
On-line response used to be speedy and overwhelmingly unfavourable. Horrified audience commented that the shorten video used to be “scarier than the scariest horror film,” and it quickly was referred to as the “weak-spot video” and “the meeting of ghouls.” (In particular, the committee contributors had been being in comparison to a kind of ghoul referred to as a chāngguǐ 伥鬼: the ghost of anyone eaten by means of a tiger, who upcoming is helping the tiger to eat others.) The video used to be then deleted from a couple of platforms together with Weibo, the place it garnered many vital feedback evoking the pessimistic “last generation” sentiment (see access) that arose all the way through Shanghai’s repressive COVID lockdown: “It turns out the reason [the government] wants people to have kids is to use them as leverage against their parents.” “Fuck, and they expect us to keep giving birth to little hostages?” “Oh, my son has no future? No thank you, then, I won’t be giving birth to a child for you to persecute.” In December 2022, next the drop of the movie “Avatar: The Way of Water,” there used to be some on-line dialogue concerning the “weak point” mentioned by means of group committee contributors, because it indistinguishable to this order about population, spoken by means of protagonist Jack Sully: “Sullys stick together. It was our greatest weakness and our great strength.”
In July 2023, next a college gym shatter killed ten contributors of a ladies’ volleyball staff and their trainer in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province, native officers careworn the grieving folks into signing away their rights sooner than they may even view the our bodies in their daughters. It used to be a in particular egregious instance of government exploiting parental “weak spots” to safeguard that they didn’t kick up a fuss or put together too many calls for. “Even though the kids have died, [officials] are still using them to put the squeeze on the parents,” complained one Weibo commenter. A Would possibly 2023 article by means of WeChat blogger Xiang Dongliang explored the numerous ways in which academics had been roped into changing into grassroots coverage enforcerstogether with leveraging kids as “weak spots” to implement parental compliance with COVID controls all the way through the pandemic.
The turn aspect to this time period will also be present in a 2020 essay by means of retired Peking College sociology mentor Zheng Yefu, who argues that the CCP’s emphasis on “maintaining social stability” is undermining China’s social concord. As proof, he issues to the telling development of the kids of political elites increasingly more opting for to decide out of the country. “Only striking them where they are vulnerable will wake them up,” he writes. “Their weak spot is their offspring. They can suppress the subjects of the kingdom, but cannot control the rational choice of their own legitimate descendents to integrate with the world and have a civilized life.”
