On August 3, 2010, the official news website of China’s Guangxi Autonomous Region reported on the trial in Nanning (南宁) of Han Feng (韩峰), a former government official with the region’s Tobacco Sales Bureau, who was accused of bribery. After Han Feng’s personal diary telling of his sexual exploits was released on the Internet in 2010, he became referred to in China as the “diary minister.” In court, Han reportedly admitted that the entries in the diary were “mostly true.” In this cartoon appearing in official media, the artist draws a government official tangled in the bed sheets of an open diary. The text over the heads of the official and his mistress reads, “Minister’s Diary.” On the coatrack behind them hangs a dynastic style minister’s cap, a symbol of official power.


David Bandurski

CMP Director

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