The following post by Xie Wen (谢文), the former head of Yahoo China, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 10:35am today, November 18, 2013. In the post, Xie shares a link to an online piece written by current affairs columnist Ding Dong (丁咚) in which the National Security Commission announced by the recent Party plenum is likened to the Soviet Union’s Committee for State Security, better known as the KGB. Xie Wen currently has more than 180,000 followers on Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre]
The deleted post reads:

Ding Dong: Why was the Soviet KGB so terrifying to people? / The KGB in the Soviet era has suddenly drawn intense the attention of the Chinese people. It’s full name is the “Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti”, which translates to “National Security Commission.” Given its notorious reputation in history, it can’t help but throw up all kinds of associations for people. People can’t help but wonder whether they too might soon be living in a nightmare in which secret police are everywhere.

The Chinese-language original follows:

丁咚:苏联“克格勃”为什么很吓人?_共识网 苏联时代的克格勃突然引起中国人的浓厚兴趣。它是俄文三个首字母КГБ的音译,全称国家安全委员会。由于在历史上臭名昭着的名声,不禁让人浮想联翩到时局,人们普遍担忧自己会不会在不久的将来生活于秘密警察遍布的恐怖之中。

xie wen

NOTE: All posts to The Anti-Social List are listed as “permission denied” in the Sina Weibo API, which means they were deleted by Weibo managers, not by users themselves.


David Bandurski

CMP Director

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