Chinese journalist attempts suicide after being cyber-bullied for emotional Shinzo Abe reportage

Zeng Ying allegedly tried to kill herself after almost a week of massive trolling by Chinese netizens

A Chinese journalist reportedly tried to kill herself after she received an onslaught of criticism from Chinese nationals for her emotional reportage of Shinzo Abe’s assassination.

Zeng Ying was brutally trolled by Chinese netizens for sobbing while reporting live on Shinzo Abe’s assassination earlier this month. She was forced to apologise for being “unprofessional,” for “showing personal emotion on a public platform” and “hurting everyone’s feelings”.

DDBK, the Tokyo-based company Ying founded, said that she had been in deep “physical and psychological pain,” the South China Morning Post reported.

In China, Abe was a divisive figure and was especially disliked for visiting Yasukuni, the shrine that honours Japan’s war dead, including those who committed war crimes in China, according to What’s on the Weibo website.

Many Chinese netizens thought that Ying showing emotions on her live stream for Shanghai’s online media outlet The Paper  was “unprofessional” and “unpatriotic.”

“I’m baffled to see you crying, are you even Chinese?”, a commenter wrote to Ying on Weibo.

“You are crying over a Japanese right-winger who has no respect for the history of the invasion of China, a Japanese who has no respect for the Chinese!” another wrote.

Earlier this week, Chen Lan, a friend of Ying, shared an alleged suicide note from the reporter on her Weibo social media account. She said that Ying has posted the note on her WeChat account.

The note said that she had battled depression since 2018. And that since July she had found it difficult to deal with life and work.

Meanwhile, her Weibo account has since been deactivated for “violation of relevant laws and regulations”.

Ms Chen also confirmed that Ying had been admitted to a hospital.

The Standard reported that in a Weibo post, Ms Chen explained that she was frightened because she knew that Ying had attempted suicide in the past.

Another verified Weibo user, investigative reporter Li Jifeng, also confirmed on Tuesday in a post that Ying had attempted to kill herself in Japan around 2pm Tuesday.

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