High-level black

High-level black is a Chinese term referring to the use of exaggerated praise on the surface as an act of criticism.

History

The term was first used by People's Daily on 30 June 2014, which criticized journalists online for discouraging a top college entrance exam taker from Jiangsu from entering journalism. On 29 December 2016. the Cyberspace Administration of China published the "How to Prevent the ‘High-Level Black’ of Damning Praise". On 19 April 2018, People’s Daily deputy editor-in-chief Wang Yibiao published an article called "The New Era Calls for Building a Favorable Online Public Opinion Ecology", where he cited an example of internet users playing a role in attacking the "high-level blacking" of Liu Hulan, a young female revolutionary during the Chinese Civil War. On 28 February 2019, the "Central Committee Opinions on Strengthening the Party’s Political Construction" was released, which called for opposition to high-level black, saying that it would not permit "two-faced outer devotion and internal opposition toward the Party’s Central Committee, any double-dealing or ‘false reverence’".