The following post by Li Chao (李超), director of the Hainan People’s Congress Office of Training (海南人大干训办主任), about a spotting of a Chinese official tour bus at Japan’s Mount Fuji, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 3:42 a.m. today, August 29, 2012. Li Chao currently has just under 162,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

[Yesterday, touring at the foot of Mount Fuji, I happened across a special tour bus for a delegation for the Henan Provincial Governor Zhang]. When going out on tours, this provincial governor, surnamed Zhang, doesn’t really need to hang signs like this in the window, does he? Are you afraid people won’t know you’re a provincial governor from China? OK! I’ll help you do a bit of propaganda! Everyone, help me pass this along on the behalf of the provincial governor!

The post was accompanied by an image of purported to be the tour bus at Japan’s Mount Fuji with a sign identifying it as that of the Henan Provincial Government. The sign is visible at the upper right-hand side of the image. Below is a close-up of the sign, which reads: “Delegation of Henan Provincial Government’s Governor Zhang.”

In fact, the sign most likely refers to Henan’s deputy governor, Zhang Guangzhi (张广智), who was appointed to the post in January 2012. However, Zhang was in Henan just days ago to address a forum of international scholars, according to the official Henan Daily.
Interestingly, the post, which is attributed originally to Yuan Dongming (袁东明), a Weibo user from Liaoning province with just 169 followers, is still available elsewhere on Sina Weibo, and has been tagged as a “HOT”, or popular, post.
As this apparent visit to Japan by a “provincial governor” (deputy governor?) comes amid rising tensions between China and Japan, some Chinese chided the Henan officials for their “courage.” One user remarked, tongue-in-cheek: “These leaders can really deal with adversity. For them to enter the tiger’s den when tensions between both sides are so high — ah, their courage makes China sigh with emotion!”

The following is the original Chinese post:

【昨日在富士山脚下游玩，无意中发现了河南省政府张省长旅游专车】这位张姓省长大人出来旅游也不要弄个这样的牌子挂在车窗上吧？生怕大家不知道您是中国省长？好！俺也帮您宣传推广一下！大家帮帮忙，为省长转转！

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.