Vivian Wang of The New York Times offers a fascinating piece on how Mainland China has embraced and prompted many foreign travel bloggers…as long as their message concerning China is positive.

Chinese Propaganda Will Happily Promote Foreign Travel Bloggers Who Stick To The Right Narrative

As China fully reopens after a multi-year closure, many bloggers and vloggers are showing up to chronicle their travels to China. Those who promote travel in China not only as tools for economic growth via tourism but as propaganda in the greater existential struggle with the West:

But for China, the videos do more than help stimulate its economy. They are a chance for Beijing to hit back at what it calls an anti-China narrative in the West. China in recent years has encouraged locals to treat foreigners as potential spies; expanded its surveillance state; and expelled or arrested journalists at Chinese and foreign media outlets. But it points to the carefree travel videos as proof — from Westerners — that criticisms about those issues are manufactured.

“Overseas audiences find that through these videos, they see a real, fast-developing China that differs from the one under the mainstream narrative in the West,” said one article in The Global Times, a Communist Party-controlled tabloid.

In terms of website growth, returning to China and writing fawning story after fawning story about the culture, food, and beauty of China would probably nicely increaase my income. You write your stories or make your videos in a manner that praises China and you will be promoted on platforms like Weibo, Douyin, Doubin, and Baidu Tieba.

And as a traveler who has been to China many times and been to over 145 countries…I don’t think it’s wrong to point out that there is a certain beauty and that the human family is not so different, regardless of geographic position. Indeed, I think it is wrong to blanketly label China as “bad” when there is immense complexity in a country of 1.4 billion people.

Now at the same time, going into the Xinjiang region and talking about how great the dumplings are instead of the seven security checkpoints you had to pass in order to reach the restaurant strikes me as duplicitous…like Tucker Carlson’s amazement over a grocery store in Moscow.

As it turns out, I think of China like I do Russia and Iran…and I think all those nations have people who want the same things in life that you or I do and are not supportive of their government. And there is room for discussion even with those who are…

But do understand that you may be attacked for reporting the facts…

Another traveler, Sara Qiu, a Spanish cyclist who has been riding through western China, shared exuberant posts on Facebook and Instagram about her journey: being invited by strangers to join their son’s wedding or to eat dinner at their homes. Her travels have expanded her understanding of the country her parents immigrated from, Qiu, 32, said in an interview.

But she has also shared stories about being tailed by police cars, especially while in Xinjiang, and being turned away from hotels because she is foreign.

When she shared a video of her experience booking a room — a hotel employee said he had to make a call before he could accept her and the police later visited her — some commenters who appeared to be Chinese accused her of smearing China.

“They say why are you posting this, what is the meaning,” she recalled. “I just wanted to reflect the situation.”

I’m not really up for visiting places where hotel workers have to call the police in order to to obtain permission to accept guests…

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