The World On arirang

Chinese social media site Weibo has suspended fan accounts for K-pop artists, including BTS, EXO and IU. This comes amid China’s crackdown on excessive stardom and fandom. Some Western media outlets reported that the Communist Party’s censorship on the popular culture sector is aimed at preventing young people from challenging socialist values. Prior to the entertainment business, China’s regulatory clampdown targeted Chinese tech giants and gaming companies, pressing tycoons to share more wealth with the rest of the country to achieve ‘common prosperity.’ Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Education has decided to include the political ideology of President Xi Jinping in its national curriculum for primary school up to university, as he prepares for a likely third term at next year’s Party Congress. In this week’s edition of Foreign Correspondents, we sit down with our panel of journalists to discuss the background and implications of Beijing’s far-reaching ‘rectification’ campaign.

In-studio guests
- Andres Sanchez-Braun / EFE
- Andrew Salmon, Correspondent / Asia Times
- Chien-Hao Yang / Freelance Journalist

Skype Interview Guests
- Jing Vivian Zhan, Associate Professor of Government and Public Administration / Chinese University of Hong Kong