Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Chinese censors take aim at former premier Wen Jiabao’s essay
The Financial Times ^ | 4/20/2021 | Yuan Yang

Posted on 04/20/2021 6:40:32 PM PDT by anthropocene_x

China’s censors have restricted the spread online of a personal essay written by former premier Wen Jiabao about his late mother that some dissidents said could be construed as criticism of President Xi Jinping’s leadership.

The essay, titled “My Mother”, was initially published by a Macau newspaper in a series of instalments around the tomb-sweeping festival this month. The essay was reposted by mainstream Chinese media outlets at the weekend but has since disappeared from those websites.

Wen’s essay began spreading on WeChat. “This essay violates WeChat’s public account platform rules, and has been banned from being shared,” a pop-up warning reads when users attempt to share the article.

While China’s tech companies employ thousands of in-house censors who often make decisions without receiving direct orders from the government, Wen’s seniority meant that the decision to censor must have come from an advanced level within the Chinese Communist party.

The essay itself was centred on Wen’s mother, Yang Zhiyun, and described the difficulties she endured as well as Wen’s own humble origins. Yang was one of the several relatives implicated in a 2012 New York Times investigation into the billions of dollars Wen’s family amassed during his premiership from 2003-13.

“My Mother” also mentioned the beating Wen’s father received during the Cultural Revolution. Violence during the period is not often discussed in public in China, and even more rarely by political leaders.

The essay was originally published in the Macau Herald, which is based in the former Portuguese colony, where publications enjoy looser restrictions than mainland Chinese newspapers.

It read: “The China in my heart should be a country filled with fairness and justice, where there will forever be respect for human hearts, humanity and human nature, where there will forever be youth, freedom and struggle.”

(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: china; wenjiabao
"We have nothing to fear from China. They are not competition for us" -Beijing Joe

“We hold China as a potential trading partner, and as a country growing into a respectable nation amongst other nations. I deeply believe that.” -Dianne Feinstein

1 posted on 04/20/2021 6:40:32 PM PDT by anthropocene_x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: anthropocene_x
You can recognize an authoritarian country by the way it censors former leaders.

Now join me in the mandatory Two Minute Orangemanbad. Insufficient expressions of hatred can and will be punished.

2 posted on 04/20/2021 6:51:07 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (The greatest threat to world freedom is the Chinese Communist Party and Joe Biden is their puppet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: anthropocene_x

Nothing to fear ... Unless one of your organs match’s somebody’s rich request for it .


3 posted on 04/20/2021 6:51:15 PM PDT by Nateman (Keep Liberty Alive! Article V!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio
You can recognize an authoritarian country by the way it censors former leaders.

The USA resembles China more and more - a huge central government, run by apparatchiks who feel its their job to manage every aspect of economy and society. “Politics" is merely elites at the center of the regime trying to grab power. As you point out, the losers of the great game then become “insurrectionists” and are destroyed by state-run media.

4 posted on 04/20/2021 7:00:59 PM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: anthropocene_x

“read: “The China in my heart should be a country filled with fairness and justice, where there will forever be respect for human hearts, humanity and human nature, where there will forever be youth, freedom and struggle.””

Struggle. Commie’s favorite word.

This is interesting and reflects the power struggle of a lawless system among the communists.

Wen Jiaobao is not a good guy in any way.


5 posted on 04/20/2021 7:38:24 PM PDT by ifinnegan ( Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

“The USA resembles China more and more - a huge central government, run by apparatchiks who feel its their job to manage every aspect of economy and society. “Politics” is merely elites at the center of the regime trying to grab power. As you point out, the losers of the great game then become “insurrectionists” and are destroyed by state-run media. “

So true.


6 posted on 04/20/2021 7:39:23 PM PDT by ifinnegan ( Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

“When all government ...in little as in great things... shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power; it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1821


7 posted on 04/21/2021 5:56:40 AM PDT by Max in Utah (A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson