By Jian Yi
Public anger in mainland China is once again spilling into open view, as two state-media videos triggered an unusually sharp backlash online. One video released by China Central Television was taken down within days. Another, published by the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper People’s Daily, has drawn condemnation from nearly 7,000 users, many of whom directly attacked the outlet’s moral framing.
The incidents have renewed discussion about the widening gap between official propaganda and the lived reality of ordinary Chinese citizens. While dissent remains tightly controlled, the volume and tone of the online reaction suggested a level of frustration that has been building for years.
The video at the center of the People’s Daily controversy features a food delivery worker whose right leg has been amputated below the knee. The pavement appears slick from recent rain. Despite the risk of slipping, the man is shown limping forward, gripping a customer’s order in one hand while leaning heavily on a crutch with the other.
Across the top of the screen, one word appears: “Scenery.”
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The breaking point
For many viewers, that caption was the breaking point.
One widely circulated comment, which quickly accumulated thousands of likes, addressed People’s Daily directly. After opening with profanity, the user asked: “Why does something like this exist? Don’t you know the answer yourselves? Is it really so hard to give him a pension? Why film this and congratulate yourselves?”
The commenter used symbols and emojis to evade censorship, a tactic that has become routine for Chinese netizens seeking to express criticism without immediate deletion.
The video was confirmed to have been published by People’s Daily itself. To critics, the portrayal crossed from tone-deafness into dehumanization. A man struggling to survive, they argued, had been reduced to a visual prop in a feel-good narrative.
Online reactions frequently invoked classical language to express moral outrage. Some quoted the ancient philosopher Mencius, who wrote that compassion and a sense of right and wrong are fundamental to being human. In contrast, users said, the video reflected not empathy, but loyalty to Party messaging.
Screenshots shared outside China show the critical comment receiving 6,962 likes, an unusually high number given China’s tightly monitored platforms.
Others cited the Chinese writer Wang Shuo, whose line has resurfaced repeatedly beneath state-media posts: “The most shameless form of praise is turning the suffering of the poor into inspirational stories to deceive the underclass.”
At roughly the same time, another state-produced video was quietly removed after provoking similar anger.
The phrase “An apology is owed to China’s 14 million delivery workers” began circulating widely online.
About a week earlier, CCTV had released a three-minute promotional video featuring a female delivery rider. The video portrays her as a former graphic designer who found fulfillment after switching careers. Early in the clip, she casually mentions completing 30 deliveries in a day, a claim many delivery workers immediately disputed, citing a sharp drop in orders amid the economic slowdown.
Set to upbeat music, the video presents delivery work as flexible and uplifting. The rider is shown stopping to photograph dogs and strangers, describing her job as one that allows her to enjoy the scenery and move closer to her dreams.
Near the end, she says that after three months of delivering food, she bought herself a new camera.
Viewers quickly identified the model’s price: 15,000 yuan (about USD 2,100).
The implication stunned many. After covering all living expenses, the video suggested, a delivery worker could still afford expensive equipment.
Netizens erupt
The reaction was immediate and scathing.
“If I hadn’t actually done delivery work, I might have believed this,” one user wrote. Another commented that the rider should try delivering food in northeastern China at minus 20 degrees Celsius and see how scenic it feels.
A university lecturer shared his own experience attempting delivery work: three hours during peak time earned him 20 yuan (about USD 3), followed by a 4-yuan fine (about USD 0.60). A single sandwich wiped out the day’s income, he wrote.
Others mocked the video’s tone by rewriting popular song lyrics, contrasting the harsh reality of scrambling to survive with the calm, effortless image presented on screen.
One sarcastic comment, liked more than 44,000 times, read: “Director: Life may be hard, but surely three months is enough to buy a 15,000-yuan camera, right?”
Another user observed: “The best way to kill a bird is to write its cries as singing.”
Some compared the propaganda to the infamous line attributed to Emperor Hui of Jin—“Why not eat meat porridge?”—though others argued the analogy fell short. At least that remark acknowledged hunger, one user wrote. “Why not admire the scenery ignores the problem entirely.”
A brief comment summed up the contrast: “One genuinely doesn’t know. The other pretends not to see.”
Images, rather than words, carried some of the most powerful responses. One widely shared photo shows a young girl lying on the battered seat of an electric scooter. The delivery rider—possibly her parents—has strapped her in with black rubber bands to prevent her from falling while working. A makeshift black barrier shields her as she sleeps during the lunch rush.
For many viewers, the image was devastating. A child at an age meant to be carefree, sleeping not in a bed but in a dark, improvised box attached to a delivery vehicle, became a symbol of economic strain.
“I have two daughters,” one user wrote. “This hurts to look at.”
Within days, the CCTV video was removed, taken down under the weight of public criticism.
