BEIJING: The reported United States strike in Venezuela on Jan 3 and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife sent ripples through global diplomacy, drawing swift criticism from Beijing.
China, a close ally of Caracas, said it was strongly dissatisfied with Washington’s move and called for the couple’s release, while many Chinese netizens condemned the US as a “global bully”.
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But amid the outrage, an unexpected online response emerged as users began mass-streaming
Unfortunately Not You, a 2005 ballad by Malaysian singer Fish Leong (
pic),
CNA reported.
The surge was driven by wordplay, as the song’s Chinese title 可惜不是你 (Ke Xi Bu Shi Ni) carries the phrase “Kexi”, which sounds like “Xi”, the surname of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Using the homophone as cover, some netizens turned the song into pointed sarcasm, leaving comments such as “Unfortunately, it wasn’t Xi” and “They caught the wrong person”.
The track was swiftly taken down from major Chinese platforms, including QQ Music, with users greeted by notices citing “temporary unavailability due to copyright restrictions”.
Internet watchers noted this was not the first disappearance for the song, which was also pulled after the 2022 assassination of Shinzo Abe and again following Li Keqiang’s death in 2023, prompting jokes that its “market value keeps rising”.
