Chinese TV deletes clips from the World Cup in Qatar for a strange reason

Chinese state television deleted footage showing fans in the World Cup in Qatar without masks, after previous coverage sparked outrage in China.

China is the last major economy still trying to stem the local spread of COVID-19 through sudden lockdowns, long quarantines and large-scale virus testing campaigns.

During a live broadcast of a match that took place yesterday, Sunday, and brought together Japan and Costa Rica, the Chinese “CCTV Sports” channel replaced close-up footage of fans without masks waving flags, with footage of players, officials, or the stadium, according to “Agence France Presse”.

And the “CCTV Sports” channel broadcast remote footage of the audience, as it was difficult to identify faces, and fewer group shots compared to the live broadcast of the match itself on online platforms, including “Dooyin”, which is the Chinese version of the “Tik Tok” application.

Tens of millions of people in major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing, are subject to a kind of general closure, as of Sunday, unlike what is witnessed in the World Cup stadiums in Qatar, which angered many users of social networks in China.