Iran Resorts To Chinese Influencers To Rebuild Tarnished Image

Iran’s Ministry of Tourism has brought 20 Chinese influencers to Iran in an attempt to provide a positive picture of the regime on social media.

According to reports, the group has more than 60 million followers collectively on different platforms, particularly TikTok. 

Moslem Shojaei, the head of the marketing office in Iran’s Tourism Ministry, said the group has been invited as part of the “Salam Iran” project aimed at boosting tourism in the country.

They are to visit different parts of Iran in four tours during the stay.

On Tuesday, a short video was released showing 11 of the influencers visiting the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Shiites, in the religious city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran.

Meanwhile, Ezzatollah Zarghami, Iran’s Minister of Tourism and a former IRGC officer, hailed the visiting Chinese influencers as “active youths” who can effectively encourage their fellow compatriots to travel to Iran, currently blighted by human rights abuses and being labelled the world's number one state sponsor of terror, by the US. 

Over the past years, especially after the nationwide uprising in Iran triggered by the death in morality-police custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022, Tehran has tried to employ foreign influencers and known figures in a desperate attempt to rebuild its tarnished international reputation and even promote its ideological causes.

In February, Whitney Wright, an American adult film actress, travelled to Iran, sharing an image of herself at Tehran's Golestan Palace, fully covered with Iran's mandatory hijab.

Wright's visit to Iran ignited a firestorm on Iranian social media. Some users alleged that Iranian authorities either invited or facilitated her visit due to her outspoken anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian stances.