The following post by Xu Xingqi (徐幸起), posted at10:12AM today, January 20, 2015, was censored just more than 40 minutes later. The post summarises arguments and discourse analysis posted recently by CMP director Qian Gang (钱钢). [Explore more deleted posts by using the Weiboscope, created by the Journalism & Media Studies Centre.]

Qian Gang: [They] talk about “governing in accord with the constitution” but can’t talk about “constitutionalism”; they talk about “the independent exercise of the powers of trial and prosecution” but can’t talk about “judicial independence.” According to this logic, how will they treat “rule of law,” and how will they treat human rights? They say we must adopt the best fruits of human civilisation, but if every globally accepted principle is quarantined off in this way, can they really advance true reforms? And how can we even talk about “the modernisation of national governance systems and governance capacity?

The Chinese-language version of Qian Gang’s article was published at FT Chinese.