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In China, the popular Internet idiom “advanced blackening” has been used to describe a defamatory tactic in which a sentence of praise actually hints at discredit. During the period of the recent Two Sessions, the annual political meetings of the Chinese regime, the phrase has frequently been used to describe how the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) propaganda department abnormally discredits Party leader Xi Jinping.
During his appearance in Beijing for this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Russian president Vladimir Putin seems to have put the moves on China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, by putting his coat over her shoulders. Or at least that’s how state-run media appears to see it.
