The following post by Gong Xiaoyue (龚晓跃), a veteran Chinese journalist and former CMP fellow, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 6:24am today, July 24, 2012. The post is a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the official handling of floods in Beijing and of the ruling Party’s handling of a number of crises of reportedly historic proportions. In the midst of serious flooding in Beijing last Friday, official state media in China said the floods were the worst in more the 60 years. This assertion was contested by journalists and experts on social media, who turned sharp criticism on the city’s lack of preparedness. Gong Xiaoyue currently has just over 143,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

. . . Many thanks to this once-in-5,000-years government for allowing us to experience so many worst-in-a-century things in such a short period of time.

The original Chinese post follows:

紫薇同学还是那么凌厉。那谁说的？多谢这五千年一遇的政府，让我们在短暂的一生里居然经历了这么多的百年一遇。