Changing China One Post at a Time

In September 2013, Yang Dacai, a top safety official in China’s Shanxi province, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for corruption. The sentence was the end of a saga that began online more than a year ago, when Chinese internet users heaped criticism on Yang for smiling at the scene of a deadly bus crash. Over a period of days, web users searched out a number of photos in which Yang appeared to be wearing luxury watches. How, they asked, could he afford such luxury on his modest salary as a public servant? The outcry eventually led to an official investigation. In the above cartoon, posted by artist Zhu Senlin (朱森林) to Sina Weibo, dangling “@”s — symbols of the internet — hook a corrupt official (presumably Yang Dacai) around his luxury watch, lifting him out of the filthy sea of corruption. The message at the top reads: “Changing China, One Post at a Time.”


David Bandurski

CMP Director

Latest Articles