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‘Do you want to show strength here?’: Russia’s ads on Chinese social media recruiting Chinese mercenaries for fighting in Ukraine (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 week ago by Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org to c/europe@feddit.org
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The videos are across Chinese social media. Some are slickly produced Russian propaganda about being “tough” men; some sound more like influencer advertisements for a working holiday. Others are cobbled-together screenshots by regular citizens about to leave China. But they all have one thing in common: selling the benefits of becoming a Chinese mercenary for Russia.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced that two Chinese nationals had been captured in the eastern Donetsk region and accused Moscow of trying to involve China “directly or indirectly” in the conflict. A day later, he said the men were among at least 155 other Chinese members of Russia’s armed forces. Then again, on Thursday, he accused Russia of conducting “systemic work” in China to recruit fighters.

[...]

China says it is a neutral party to the conflict, although its leader, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, are public allies, with a “no limits” partnership between their two nations.

Zelenskyy demanded answers from Beijing, accusing it of turning a blind eye to Russia’s recruitment of its citizens.

[...]

Numerous recruitment clips are easily found on Chinese social media. All of them emphasise the pay on offer, ranging from 60,000 to 200,000 RMB (£6,000 to £21,000) as a sign-on bonus and monthly salaries of about 18,000 RMB (£1,900).

One video, which has had hundreds of thousands of views across different platforms, appears to be a Russian recruitment ad with Chinese subtitles overlaid. It shows Caucasian men leaving their day jobs to fight and asks viewers: “Do you want to show strength here? Is this the path that you long for? You are a tough man, be like them!”

[...]

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