The following post by Duan Guifa (段贵发) making a quip about corruption and patriotism was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 2:02PM today, November 17, 2014. Duan Guifa currently has more than 102,000 followers on Sina Weibo. [See more deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre].
The post shares a still from a Chinese period film or television serial in which a man shuts his eyes in revery as he sits before a lavishly-set table. The man standing behind the seated man says (in dialogue pasted over the top), “How can you in good conscience love your country when you’ve taken 800 million?” To which the seated man responds: “Nonsense! I could take 800 million, so why wouldn’t I love this country?”
The post is an apparent reference to widespread corruption in China. The Associated Press recently reported that, according Beijing estimates, 16,000 to 18,000 corrupt officials and state enterprise employees have fled China since the mid-1990s, stealing assets worth more than 800 billion yuan.
The original Chinese-language post follows:
能捞8个亿，干嘛不爱国？（图转）
