The following post by billionaire investor Wang Gongquan (王功权) on credibility and China’s information control policies was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 12:08pm Hong Kong time yesterday, May 1, 2012. Wang Gongquan currently has more than 1.4 million followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

So long as the Central Propaganda Department kills speech, the credibility of the Chinese Communist Party cannot possibly be built up. It’s just that simple.

Wang’s post is a response to a separate Weibo post by well-known lawyer Chen Youxi (陈有西) — also now deleted by censors — that discusses heightened controls on Chinese social media in recent weeks:

This killing of Weibo [posts and accounts] without rhyme or reason shows the extreme idiocy of China’s rulers. This law-of-the-forest approach to governance constitutes malpractice. If social management is without principle and does not abide the law, then the country lacks confidence and the people are in a state of disorder — and if the people are in disorder the country must grow chaotic. When this sort of violence by public power is exercised in an information society, and [power] itself feels proud of its actions, this must result in a deep social crisis. The people who send out orders for this kind of action are bringing calamity to our country and our people.
不告知不说理封杀微博，体现了中国的统治者非常愚蠢。丛林法则是管天下的大忌，社会管理无规则不依法，国无信则民无序，民无序则国必乱。信息社会行此公权暴力，还自以为得意，必引深层社会危机。下令这样干的人是在祸国殃民。

The original Chinese post by Wang Gongquan follows:

只要中宣部还在封杀言论，共产党的公信力就不可能建立起来。道理就是这么简单。