Comedian John Oliver has taken aim at Chinese President Xi Jinping in the latest instalment of his late night HBO show Last Week Tonight.
“Under Xi Jinping, China is becoming more authoritarian just as it has major plans for expansion onto the world stage,” Oliver said in the show broadcast on Sunday night.
He cited China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project, its controversial social credit system, the wide-ranging crackdown on dissent, Xi’s cult of personality, and the Communist Party’s removal of presidential term limits.
“Trump is leaving a vacuum on the world stage, and China is more than happy to fill it by telling the world its story and leaving out some very important details,” he said.
Oliver added that it was time for state media’s “cuddly propaganda” videos to better reflect a more rounded picture of China’s development, as he presented a parody of a 2017 children’s song about the Belt and Road project.
