CMP reported last week that the Weibo account of political cartoonist Kuang Biao (邝飚) had been deleted for the 29th time. Our happy ending was that Kuang had managed to open another Sina account, reaching more than 2,000 fans in less than 24 hours.
Unfortunately, Kuang’s latest account, “Brother Kuang Cartoon 28″ (飚哥漫画28世), has already been deleted. Visits are routed to a page that reads: “We’re sorry, the account you’re visiting is not [accessible] as normal, and the account cannot be visit at this time.”

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kuang Biao’s work, we encourage you to buy his most recent collection of cartoons. Or simply try this Google search of his Chinese name.

In 2013, China has experienced some of the worst air pollution on record. The poor and often abysmal quality of air in many of China’s cities has caused anger as the government’s failure to grapple with the problem, and has also prompted some soul searching about the long-term effects of rapid growth. In the above cartoon, posted to Sina Weibo by artist Lao Xiao (老肖漫画), a cloud of smog covers the eyes of a pedestrian with its grey hands. The pedestrian says in response: “I don’t know what your name is, but I know it’s that bastard called GDP that sent you.”

Thanks to an astounding ability to land on their feet, cats have been said to have nine lives. Surviving as a political cartoonist on Chinese social media apparently requires a similar level of agility.
Kuang Biao (邝飚), one of China’s boldest and most original cartoonists, announced yesterday that his account on Sina Weibo had been shut down yet again. Kuang told the China Media Project that this is the 29th time his account has been shut down on the popular social media platform.

In his first Weibo post on his new account, “Brother Kuang Cartoon 28” (飚哥漫画28世), which already has more than 2,200 fans, Kuang wrote: “Goodnight my friends! Just now Brother Kuang Cartoon 27 was buried alive. . . I’m so fortunate to have been born in a nation of rule of law, where I experience the joy of democracy and freedom.”
The post was accompanied by one of Kuang’s earlier works (ABOVE), in which a monstrous figure squatting over a workbench prepares to plane a dissident so that they conform to his specifications.

[ABOVE: Cartoonist Kuang Biao sets up a new Weibo account after his latest was shut down on March 20.]

In its special “315 gala” for World Consumer Rights Day, the state-run China Central Television aired an investigative feature alleging unfair treatment by Apple of its customers in China. But the attention shifted back on CCTV after a Sina Weibo post from the account of a Taiwanese celebrity seemed to reveal a plan to have celebrities post about the segment soon after it aired. Many Chinese users on social media said they believed CCTV was guilty of foul play and was going after companies (including Apple and Volkswagen) that had not advertised with the network. In the above cartoon by Xiao Mao (小矛), posted to Sina Weibo on March 16,, a mob underling in a black suit and black tie looks at a list and says: “It looks like Apple, Volkswagen and a few others haven’t paid their protection fees yet.” Seated below, a white-haired mob boss grinds his teeth and says: “Let’s do a special gala and blacken their names. Perhaps we can air it at around 8:20!”

The following post by “Ma Jiming CN” (马霁明CN) saying that revolution is the only way to really root out rampant corruption in China, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 8:42 a.m. today, March 19, 2013. “Ma Jiming CN” is a self-identified Maoist who currently has more than 19,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre]

[Without a revolution, corruption can’t possibly be restrained] China is about to enter a rapid historical process of rot and “granulation” (沙化), and this can’t be stopped! There may be some moderation of official corruption now, but the corrupting trend of the rash and self-seeking drive for profit throughout our entire society will grow more an more severe. Even though weak ideological slogans and propaganda education will do their utmost to resist it, the “economic foundation will dictate the overall structure”, and aside from revolution all work is in vain.

The original Chinese language post follows:

【除非发生革命，腐败不可能遏制】中国将进入加速腐烂“沙化”历史进程，不可阻挡！官场腐败或许有所收敛，但整个社会私有化下的“自私自利、唯利是图和一盘散沙化”的腐败将越演越烈。尽管软弱无力的意识形态空口号和宣传教化会做出顽强抵抗，但“经济基础决定上层建筑”，除了革命都是徒劳无功的。

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.

In a segment aired last Friday night during an official televised gala to commemorate World Consumer Rights Day, China Central Television sharply criticized Apple, alleging that it offered substandard services to Chinese consumers.
But criticism quickly turned back on CCTV after it appeared that the network had organized a campaign against Apple on social media, timed to strike immediately after the segment aired. The controversy now centers on a post made just before 8:30 p.m. from the Sina Weibo account of Taiwanese actor Peter Ho. The message, in which Ho claimed he felt “hurt” by Apple’s actions in China, ended with a line suggesting Ho had been enlisted in a coordinated smear campaign: “Post around 8:20 p.m.,” it said.

There is heated discussion on Weibo today about Peter Ho’s post. It seems that the post indeed was sent, but Ho has claimed in a subsequent official statement that he did not send it. This is a curious claim, leaving a number of highly unlikely scenarios — such as someone maliciously accessing his account to send the message (with what possible motive?). [Here is another post including an image of the post from Ho’s account.]
By 8:45 p.m. on Friday the tide on social media had turned against CCTV. The possibility of a conspiracy to smear Apple was being discussed at least at hotly as Apple’s alleged unkindness to Chinese consumers.
At 8:55 p.m. Chinese writer Li Chengpeng posted a short essay to his blog criticizing CCTV for its actions. A partial translation of his piece follows:

It’s not that you can’t do some things on and off the air to go along with the fight against fakes. But you cannot use public power to make targeted strikes against those who aren’t your major advertisers. Of course you can criticise Apple, but you cannot let all of these domestically manufactured fraudulent goods off the hook when you could so easily investigate them, then turn a harsh and uncompromising eye on a mobile brand that leads the world in overall quality — even making it out to be something of great concern to the people, a form of national discrimination . . . The thing is, you’ve always done things this way. You act all the time like you don’t give a damn about your own face, and then you place the condom of state power over the instrument of your own private profit.
Those enterprises are bad, but what you’re doing is disgusting. A massive network like yours, with massive channel resources in your grasp and high-level contacts, but your creativity is such that you can only be compared to [propaganda] megaphone shouting over the countryside . . . .
You turn your eyes from knife attacks on our own children, but focus your attention on tragedies at schools overseas; you don’t criticize the way our own congresses have gathered like so many artificial limbs for 60-odd years, but always mock the way shoes have been thrown again in a parliament in some other country. You’ve never questioned why officials in our country don’t open up about their assets (great, so on this issue we must thank foreign reporters for asking this question at press conferences), but you take great joy in reporting about some government official overseas who got caught using public funds to buy a bottle of wine. Yes, there are certainly many untoward things happening outside China — poisonous foods, corrupt officials, poverty. But no matter how many of these dirty stories there are overseas, what the hell do these have to do with me? I don’t have family there. I criticize ugly things in China because these do harm to my own family (Oh, I see, so perhaps you criticize things overseas so much because you own relatives have already . . . ?). You are China’s national television network, so you should be criticizing more things happening right beside you. That’s how you contribute to your own country. Is it so hard for you to understand this simple concept?
Just look at the rest of the world. It seems that only our country uses public funds to host things like the March 15 gala (3.15晚会) [for World Consumer Rights Day]. The more evening galas we host here [on Chinese television], the more severe problems are, until in the end evening galas themselves become the problem. We don’t go and fix the actual problems, we just hold evening [television] galas, and more evening banquets. For our own pleasure, we plan evening banquets. In order to support the elderly, we hold Cheung Yeung Festival gala. In order to save ourselves from moral decline, we hold Study Lei Feng gala. In order to save ourselves from poor-quality products, of course we must hold a March 15 gala [for consumer rights].
One after another the dead pigs float down the Yangtze River, too many to count. And I’m in no mood to count them either. If you don’t care at all about this problem, I think I’ll add another to the count. It is a dead pig of morals that never speaks up.
What I’ve learned most from this latest episode [concerning Apple] is this: CCTV, you no longer have any right to teach me morals.

The following post by (蓝胖纸神行促织) was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 8:41 a.m. today, March 15, 2013. “I hope that soon he will receive his Honorary Oscar,” the post remarks on another post, non-sensitive and undeleted, showing Premier Wen Jiabao bowing out of office at the National People’s Congress, yielding the post to his successor, Li Keqiang. This is a reference to China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao, a book by dissident author Yu Jie published in Hong Kong in 2010 and alleging that while Wen Jiabao has cultivated an image as a leader who genuinely cares for the people, he was really a do-nothing figurehead. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre]

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.

In recent months, serious environmental and public health issues in China have drawn widespread concern from citizens — from poor air quality in Beijing and other cities, to thousands of pig carcasses appearing inexplicably in Shanghai’s main river. For many Chinese, these issues underscore the costs of rapid economic growth that has not been balanced with effective administration. In this cartoon, called “Searching,” posted by artist “Comic Smoke” (漫画食墨客) to Sina Weibo, the earth is a cracked and desolate place where only the stumps of trees are left. White doves (nations or people hoping for a solution?) fly in search of a sustenance, but they are tethered to a black hook driven into the earth.