This article relates highly to 1984 by the way the leader seems to be taking his charge and making his presence widely known. Xi Jinping is raising the standards for state media by demanding propaganda fronts and obedience toward the will of the core party, according to Willy Lam, an elite expert on Chinese politics. In the first sentence on the second page, Lam explains the Xi Jinping has a growing issue from not only different parties, but from an "unhappy, disaffected public" as well. This directly correlates with 1984 because the public is forced to have "Two-Minutes of Hate", which O'Brien shows a film depicting the enemies of the Party, and the Oceania population has to spend exactly two minutes obeying and repeating O'Brien's hatred. The scary this is, this isn't something that the public is forced to join, but it's something that is impossible to avoid mentally because obedience is expected. Both O'Brien and Xi Jinping have demanding standards for their people, and this causes a portion, or a person, to become unaffected and questioning to the Party, such as Winston in 1984. Willy Lam adds to this by noticing how the people react to Xi, mimicking the actions of Winston.
Children, although not directly or personally, are truly being used as propaganda weapons. In life, there are children being brutally murdered or attacked in hopes that an opposing party will be hit in its weak-side, and fall prey. This is happening... but not in a way a positive outlook would seem. If we kill an outsider child, another outside party kills one of ours. This goes on and on for no end because everyone is much too worried about the effect on themselves and how it makes them look. In 1984, children are also used as weapons of propaganda, but not as extreme. They are being accused. Winston sees them as traitors and that they know too much, when in reality, he has nothing to compare them to, because the children learn everything from their parents and the government, and nothing more. From the moment they are born, they are taught to obey everything the government says. This results in weapons of propaganda.