PILING ON

Chinese Reporter Called Unpatriotic for Crying Over Abe’s Assassination

Zing Yeng’s emotional reaction quickly spread across China’s social-media network Weibo, where users were up in arms.

A reporter for Chinese media outlet The Paper held back tears as she reported on the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday. But her emotional reaction to the shocking news was not warmly received on China’s social network Weibo, where users slammed her as unpatriotic. Abe was a divisive figure in China because of some of his actions during and after his prime ministership, such as his decision to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead but includes the names of hundreds of convicted war criminals who perpetrated abuses in China. “1.4 billion Chinese people, and you’re the only one crying,” one Weibo user wrote. In a lengthy post, the reporter apologized for “losing my self-control” but said she was shaken up by the precarious situation in Japan and was an unapologetic supporter of “world peace, and no more war between China and Japan ever again.”