When China’s equity bubble burst and the SHCOMP tumbled unceremoniously back to earth on the back of a harrowing unwind in the half dozen or so backdoor margin lending channels that had served to pump CNY1 trillion into an already inflated stockMARKET, Beijing went looking for scapegoats. The ensuing crackdown on “malicious” sellers and “hostile foreigners” as well as a directive to reporters to avoid using certain phrases such as “rescue theMARKET” served as poignant reminders to the world that although China is indeed making small steps towards liberalizing its markets, outcomes deemed undesirable by the Politburo will be “corrected” – and right quick.
Similarly, when a viral documentary about the country’s pollution problem began making the rounds back in March, the government moved quickly to suppress discussion as FT reported that “propaganda authorities directed news outlets not to publish stories about Under the Dome, the emotional first-person documentary by a former state television anchor.”
Given the above, and given everything we know about China’s propensity for censorship in all its forms, you can imagine that one thing you would not want to do in China if you were, say, “one of the most recognizable faces” on a state-run television station, is call Mao Zedong “an old son of a bitch,” but that’s exactly what Bi Fujian did back in April, and now Beijing’s media watchdog has “recommended” that Bi be “severely punished.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on 08/10/2015.
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