The demise of Iranian Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei in a U.S.-Israeli missile strike on February 28 was extensively mentioned on Chinese language social media. A lot of this dialog was reflexive, utilizing the occasion to touch upon numerous points in China, starting from financial nervousness over the aftermath to the P.R.C.’s info surroundings and the settling of on-line scores. As has grow to be conventional when a world chief suffers demise or different misfortune, many Sinophone customers of X and different platforms posted references to Malaysian singer Fish Leong’s ballad “Sadly Not You,” a thinly veiled type of “praying for jade”: that’s, wishing it had occurred to Xi Jinping as an alternative.
Manya Koetse at Eye on Digital China provided a broad survey of Chinese language on-line dialogue of the assaults and famous, amongst many different themes, criticism of formally aligned commentators like former International Instances editor Hu Xijin: “When the primary rumors of Khamenei’s demise surfaced, [Hu] prompt the Iranian chief was most likely preserving a low profile and making ready a public tackle that might be a serious blow to the US and Israel, solely to acknowledge the subsequent day that Khamenei had certainly died. Later, Hu predicted that Iran’s new chief can be swiftly elected. As none of his predictions appear to be growing older properly, some netizens joked: ‘The one one who can beat Hu Xijin is the Hu Xijin of the subsequent day.’” A number of posts archived at CDT Chinese language equally mocked official media protection and particularly the assured however false predictions of nationalist commentators (additionally coated at China International South Mission). Undaunted, one such knowledgeable moved on, with mockery in scorching pursuit, to claims that the focused strike towards Khamenei reveals America’s declining typical army functionality.
Elsewhere, prolific blogger Xiang Dongliang pushed again towards the favored view that the U.S. assault is primarily a seize for oil. Whereas his clarification of Washington’s motives by way of American primacy and prosperity does focus outdoors China, it’s framed by way of China’s personal info surroundings: “Everybody is aware of,” he writes, how the oil-grab narrative grew to become so prevalent. That put up was deleted, and mentions the deletion of one other, earlier put up on the subject. In a 3rd piece, Xiang commented wryly on the erosion of Beijing’s worldwide alliances: “The founding members of the ‘Greatest Pals Perpetually’ group chat had been China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. Then Venezuela left the chat. Iran appears prone to observe. With Cuba’s gasoline reserves working low, its days within the membership are most likely additionally numbered.” (This echoes a latest quip that Xi’s purges had left China’s Central Navy Fee with out sufficient lively members to type a WeChat group.)
The WeChat put up translated under was additionally censored. Its title parodies absurdly overconfident warfare propaganda with the declare that “the U.S. and Israel will lose so badly, they received’t even be capable of discover their very own underwear”—the final phrase, 内衣 nèiyī, a nickname for Khamenei punning on the ultimate characters of his Chinese language title, 哈梅内伊 Hāméinèiyī. The piece by no means names Khamenei immediately, in an obvious effort to evade key phrase scans. (See our latest translation on Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s sentencing for one more instance of this censorship-evasion technique.) Its scathing condemnation of authoritarian hypocrisy and myth-making has inescapable resonances in China, such because the numbing repetition of leaders’ “phrases of knowledge”; the hole between rhetoric and actuality in elites’ solidarity with the general public; and the frequent resort to censorship and propaganda as an alternative of concrete options to issues of public concern. In that context, the unique use of pronouns sharpens the suggestion that a lot of the put up refers not simply to Khamenei, however to another person. From Lao Xiao:
The information of his demise got here with a deluge of propaganda about him “dying within the line of obligation,” as Iranian authorities gave one other demonstration of their consummate grasp of narrative manipulation.
“Why ought to my household and I take shelter whereas the individuals undergo bombardment?”
This maxim, supposedly spoken whereas he nonetheless lived, was held up as a mannequin by the propaganda equipment and rebroadcast endlessly, serving as a solemn requiem for his demise.
Muddled experiences that 4 relations together with his daughter and son-in-law had been additionally killed within the assault deepened the air of tragedy even additional.
“Refusing to take shelter,” he “died within the line of obligation,” “sharing the plenty’ destiny.” This sorrowful narrative was painstakingly constructed in an effort to painting him as a martyr who confronted down the bombardment.
The rule of non secular charlatans has all the time relied on the darkish arts of bullshit. From staged photographs of him sitting beatifically in a spartan workplace to heartwarming scenes of him shaking fingers and greeting crowds of individuals, the idealized picture projected by Iran’s official propaganda was all the time of a person “sharing the plenty’ destiny.”
However within the demon-revealing mirror of actuality, this was all a lie: as quickly as the primary shot was fired within the 2025 Israel-Iran battle, he dove right into a bunker 80 meters underground.
This “safehouse,” strengthened with bolstered concrete and Kevlar fiber, might reportedly stand up to successful from a GBU-57 Huge Ordnance Penetrator, although it couldn’t defend him from accusations of cowardice from these left outdoors.
He and his spouse hid themselves away in a defensive set up 90-100 meters under floor, protected by a phalanx of Revolutionary Guards and a fastidiously hidden subterranean entrance that was figuratively unlocked by a report from former Italian intelligence officer Marco Mancini.
On the streets of Tehran, in the meantime, the extraordinary individuals lived in terror of financial sanctions and the flames of warfare. How had been they “sharing the plenty’ destiny”? On high of every thing else, the authorities adopted a sequence of harsh measures like web blackouts and security-force deployments starting in January this 12 months, arresting some 3,000 individuals and sentencing a few of them to hanging, and establishing a draconian management regime comprising a “digital Iron Curtain + armed clearance.”
Bullshit is the non secular charlatans’ magic weapon: they attempt to spin their lies right into a cloak of authority within the hope that illusory worship will make the plenty overlook their actual struggling.
To an incredible extent, his complete life was constructed on bullshit.
From “to query the chief is to query Allah’s plan” to “neither East nor West, solely the Islamic Republic”; from “missile cities throughout the nation, carrier-killers are in place” to “we’ll absolutely make the enemy kneel earlier than us”; from claiming that Iran had “vanquished Israel” and “given america a powerful slap within the face,” the tone was determined, the heroic rhetoric hovering.
With bullshit like this, he responded to actual crises like financial stagnation, precarious livelihoods, and social contradictions by folding all of them right into a narrative framework of “sacred wrestle.”
However behind the bullshit was a cowering and quaking “rule from backstage.” He’d hardly proven his face in public for the reason that finish of 2025, and carried out day-to-day administration by his third son Masoud, with the chain of command dwindling to a single human go-between.
This state of seclusion was much less about preserving a low profile than about excessive worry for his private security.
The Iranian individuals aren’t silly, however even a idiot might see how the strike took him out, along with a bunch of different senior officers.
He merely thought that so long as oblique talks had been underway with the American imperialists, there was no threat of sudden assault by the U.S. and Israel. He wasn’t in his deep bunker as a result of daytime appeared comparatively protected; he convened senior officers for an emergency assembly in his official residence above floor in Tehran; and since somebody leaked his location, he was hit with a precision strike.
However the propaganda equipment rose to the event, depicting him as a “fearless warrior,” as if all these days and nights hiding in a bunker by no means occurred.
They need the plenty to consider that “the dwelling embodiment of Allah” bleeds crimson, identical to you. However do they actually share the plenty’ destiny? What we do know is that the preparations made for his or her security had nothing in widespread with the circumstances endured by extraordinary individuals. They leveraged discuss of “the individuals’s destiny” to prop up their very own mythology.
This gulf is totally typical of authoritarian governments: utilizing symbolic sacrifice to strengthen their very own sacred standing, and bodily isolation to make sure the security of these in energy, whereas the lives and deaths of the plenty are not more than bargaining chips to guard the leaders’ personal rule.
He wanted to seem to have died at his put up with out worry or grievance. In the end, an aged “bunker boy” can’t preserve non secular authority and ethical legitimacy, however a martyr who “shares the individuals’s adversity” can grow to be an efficient instrument for rallying the general public and stirring up hatred of the enemy.
Now he’s lifeless, however the bullshit parade marches on. Saying that he “tragically died in his workplace” tries to decorate up his demise as a wonderful and heroic sacrifice, inflaming public hostility [toward the U.S. and Israel] and sustaining the regime’s legitimacy.
He did die within the line of obligation in his workplace, “sharing the destiny” of the plenty for as soon as not out of aware alternative, however in what seems to be like a type of cosmic joke.
A “excellent demise” is a passable ultimate brushstroke for the good and towering picture of a martyr who served his nation until the top as an alternative of, as was whispered, hiding in a bunker.
The bullshit bought him killed, and now it outlives him.
Even on the finish, one final dollop was wanted as a ultimate punctuation mark to deceive himself and others.
This acquainted formulation, from play-acting at “sharing the individuals’s adversity” to the carved epitaph of “dedicating his total life,” is how the equipment of energy retains working on nothing however lies and inertia.
Strictly talking, it was his personal mythology that killed him. Now his successors in that delusion are attempting to make use of his phrases to inflate a fair greater bubble of bullshit: that ultimately, the U.S. and Israel will lose so badly, they received’t even be capable of discover their very own underwear. [Chinese]
