The following post about the social consequences of violent enforcement of urban regulations, particularly against migrant populations in China, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 10:32am Hong Kong time today, June 4, 2012. The post was made by scholar Cui Weiping (崔卫平), who currently has just under 77,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].
Cui Weiping’s post reads as follows:

Nothing that happens disappears lightly, but rather it conditions our life in this world. A massive secret becomes a vast void. Long silences emerge as new histories and responsibilities. Aren’t certain things, when avoided, the avoidance of certain important things? How far exactly have our morals slid? How deep is our spiritual fall?

Cui’s post is accompanied with a lengthy text-as-image file topped with a photo showing a young boy who seems to be seething with anger as he is apparently forced up against a wall by urban enforcement officers, or chengguan (城管), who are tasked with dealing with unlicensed peddlers in China’s cities, “illegal” construction and other matters. According to the description, the boy is the son of a migrant woman who has just been dragged away by the officers. The crying girl just visible behind the boy is his sister, according to the text file. The men in uniform standing behind the children wear different hats denoting different government offices.

所有发生过的，都不会轻易消失，会成为我们在这个世界上生活的前提。某个巨大的秘密会成为一个巨大的虚空。长期的沉默构成了另外一些历史和责任。回避了某件事情，是不是也回避了另外一些重要的事情？到底我们道德尺度滑出了多远。我们在精神上的沦陷有多深？