Rains pummeling the Chinese capital of Beijing on Saturday, July 21, and which state media said were the worst in 60 years, caused serious flooding through the city and surrounding areas. According to official numbers, the death toll from the flooding stood at 37 as of July 25, 2012. But as the city braced itself for more rain, web users attacked the city government on social media for not doing enough to build up basic infrastructure and prepare the city for events like this. In this cartoon, posted to Sina Weibo by Mao Ni’er (猫妮儿), titled “Asking for a Day Off” (求放假), two Chinese struggle through a violent thunderstorm. The text on the dark thundercloud reads: “On July 25, Beijing will see more huge storms”. The caption under the figures reads: “Won’t bosses with a conscience please let [workers] off for a day. In Beijing, when it rains PEOPLE DIE!”

The rise of social media in China has brought a burst of communication in the country. In the midst of the recent Beijing floods, for example, tens of thousands of posts on platforms like Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo shared local eyewitness accounts, snapshots and video in real time.
But social media have of course also become a new platform for the playing out of longstanding ideological divisions in China.
In a post late last night, freelance writer Wang Pei (王佩) made a post to Sina Weibo about the erection of a statue of Mao Zedong (among other world figures) in the southern French city of Montpellier.

Just after 2am this morning, veteran China Youth Daily photojournalist He Yanguang (贺延光), a past CMP fellow, re-posted Wang Pei’s original post, and added:

Why don’t they just add Hitler, Mussolini, [Japanese military leader] Tojo Hideki, Stalin, Pol Pot, Nicolae Ceauşescu and Kim Il Sung together with him?
也连带着把希特勒、墨索里尼、东条英机、斯大林、波尔布特、齐奥塞斯库、金日成的雕像一起弄去吧？

He Yanguang’s association of Mao Zedong with this list of historical tyrants, murderers and war criminals — Tojo Hideki, it should be noted is buried at the Yasukuni Shrine, a constant source of Sino-Japanese friction — quickly drew fury from leftist defenders of Mao Zedong’s legacy as a liberator of the Chinese people.
The Weibo user “Internationale” (英特那雄纳尔), whose name is a reference to the official anthem of the Socialist International, fumed in response to He’s post:

It is clearly written in the Party Constitution that we must take “Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the ‘Three Represents'” as our personal guides to action. China Youth Daily was created by the founding fathers Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. @HeYangguang, a journalist at China Youth Daily, has clearly insulted our founding leader, Mao Zedong. He has classed Mao together with fascists and war criminals, and his motives are execrable. I strongly call for the removal of this unprincipled journalist He Yanguang! Everyone pass on this call!
中青报是毛泽东周恩来等开国元勋创立的，@贺延光 身为中青报的记者公然侮辱开国领袖毛泽东，把毛与法西斯战犯相提并论，其心可诛，强烈建议开除无良记者@贺延光 ！呼吁大家转起！

Many Weibo users did pass on the call from “Internationale”, including a user called “Lao Jiu” who added to his re-post the tag for “Peaceful Beijing” (平安北京), the official Weibo of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Here we find, in the dawning age of social media in China, what we might call Maoist atavism. Social media are used as a contemporary, real-time tool to politically attack and shame one’s perceived ideological enemies — not at all unlike the so-called “struggle sessions” of the Mao era.
These are, we might say, “micro-struggle sessions”, or wei pidou (微批斗).
Here are some of the comments trailing behind the original post by “Internationale”:

1. Sina still hasn’t harmonized his [He Yanguang’s] post.
2. This bastard can be a journalist at China Youth Daily?
3. Just as you said, his parents were from landlord families.
4. He should have been fired long ago. This isn’t the first or second time he has opposed the Chinese Communist Party.
5. Who exactly is China Youth Daily speaking for? He Yanguang, this clown!
6. The [political] standpoint of the China Youth Daily has always been a problem.
7. China Youth Daily is an organ of the Chinese Communist Youth League of the CCP. [We] strongly call for the removal of He Yanguang, this performing buffoon.

The following post by Gong Xiaoyue (龚晓跃), a veteran Chinese journalist and former CMP fellow, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 6:24am today, July 24, 2012. The post is a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the official handling of floods in Beijing and of the ruling Party’s handling of a number of crises of reportedly historic proportions. In the midst of serious flooding in Beijing last Friday, official state media in China said the floods were the worst in more the 60 years. This assertion was contested by journalists and experts on social media, who turned sharp criticism on the city’s lack of preparedness. Gong Xiaoyue currently has just over 143,000 followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

. . . Many thanks to this once-in-5,000-years government for allowing us to experience so many worst-in-a-century things in such a short period of time.

The original Chinese post follows:

紫薇同学还是那么凌厉。那谁说的？多谢这五千年一遇的政府，让我们在短暂的一生里居然经历了这么多的百年一遇。

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.

The following post by Wang Wei (王巍), an executive at Mergers China, was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 3:54pm today, July 20, 2012. The post deals with the upcoming first anniversary of the July 23, 2011, high-speed rail crash in Wenzhou. A government report on the tragedy, promised within several months, has still not been released to this day. Wang Wei currently has just over 1.56 million followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

The anniversary of the July 23 [high-speed rail crash] approaches. My piece “Wang Si Tiao” (王四条) [about this issue] was shared around 50,000 times before dying. I demanded that the high-speed rail system be suspended pending an investigation, that legal proceedings replace administrative proceedings, assisting outside intermediary organizations in thoroughly investigating and auditing all high-speed rail tofu engineering projects, etcetera. This is a basic demand of civil society and the information age, but the result has been that it this [issue] has been dropped into a dark and bottomless pit. Can such a huge price in human lives be forgotten and harmonized? Can this be borne by a handful of people like [former railway minister] Liu Zhijun?

The original Chinese post follows:

723事件马上也周年了。我写的＂王四条＂瞬间转发了近五万次后阵亡。要求高铁立即停驶调查、用法律起诉代替行政处理、借助外部中介机构审计和清查所有高铁动车的豆腐渣工程等。这是公民社会和信息时代的起码要求，结果都掉进无底黑洞。这么大的生命代价会被遗忘被历史和谐吗？刘志军几个人就承担了？

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.

The following post by Chinese economist Hang Zhiguo (韩志国), was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 3:23pm today, July 20, 2012. The post, made way back on August 23, 2011, draws three fundamental lessons from the fall of “tyrannical regimes” in the Middle East and North Africa — the so-called “Arab Spring” of 2010-2011. It was presumably deleted in the midst of intensified discussion on Chinese social media following China’s United Nations Security Council veto of proposed sanctions against Syria. Hang Zhiguo currently has just under four million followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

[Three Warnings from the Collapse of Tyrannical Rule] 1. Do not over-estimate one’s own ability. When Saddam [Hussein] was in power, he received 100 percent of the vote in every election, but with the collapse [of his regime] he could only hide out in a rat hole. 2. Never trust in the loyalty of your dogs. The underlings of Saddam, Mubarak and Gaddafi were all trusted followers, but they all scattered before the tree even fell. 3. Do not underestimate the force of the people. It is difficult to maintain public opinion in the midst of intense repression, and the demands of the people cannot be deceived, disrespected or neglected!

The original Chinese post follows:

【 独裁统治崩盘的三大警示 】 1、不要高估自己的能量。萨达姆在位时,每次选举得票率都是100%,但一朝崩溃,只有钻老鼠洞的份。2、不要相信走狗的忠诚。萨达姆、穆巴拉克、卡扎菲的手下都是亲信,但树还没倒就猢狲已散。3、不要轻视民众的力量。高压手段难抵民心民意,民众的诉求不可欺不可辱不可怠！

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.

The following post by CMP Director Qian Gang (钱钢), was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 10:34pm yesterday, July 17, 2012. The post shares a number of important reports done in the past by Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post, which is now facing disciplinary action over a report in May 2012. Qian Gang currently has more than 1.19 million followers, according to numbers from Sina Weibo. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

Let’s re-warm these old pages, and pay our respects to the Oriental Morning Post!

The original Chinese post follows:

重温这些版面，向东方早报表示敬意！

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 the second disciplinary action this week against a major Chinese commercial newspaper, the publisher of Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post has been dismissed, and one of its deputy editors has been suspended. This news follows the re-shuffling on Monday of New Express editor-in-chief Lu Fumin (陆扶民).
In the most general sense, the two actions — though not in any way related or coordinated — can be read as stemming from an all-round tightening of press controls in China ahead of the crucial 18th Party Congress later this year. That simple reading, however, tells us very little about the specific mechanisms that are at work in these cases.
So what is really going on? The bottom line, we don’t know. As the Hong Kong paper The Sun summed the cases up in an editorial this morning:

Inside the mainland propaganda system, there is a way to die that can be called “death by uncertain causes”. This is when the propaganda department settles a score once autumn has passed [as they saying goes]. If the bosses of a paper are not regularly and dutifully talking [the Party’s] politics, they will be pulled down mysteriously. The New Express and Oriental Morning Post are both examples of this.

Right now, the reasons being given for these “deaths by uncertain causes” are themselves mysterious to media insiders.
In the case of the New Express, the report tipped as the trouble-causer is this one about the pasts of a number of high-level Chinese leaders that ran in the July 9 edition of the official Jinan Daily. But the report, which the New Express ran in full the following day, is still readily available online, and the Jinan Daily version is still up too.
So what’s the problem here? The signs certainly suggest there was no overarching discipline violation. If central authorities see nothing to hide, why are local authorities being so fidgety over this?
In the case of the Oriental Morning Post, the problem report is apparently an interview with Chinese economist Sheng Hong (盛洪) run back on May 15, called “Private Enterprises Have the Right to Enter All Markets”. In the interview, Sheng argues that China must put an end to the preferential treatment of state-owned enterprises. But that’s hardly sensational stuff, and here in any case is the interview, surviving quite comfortably on the Oriental Morning Post website.

[ABOVE: The report supposed to have been the problem leading to disciplinary action at Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post is alive and well on the paper’s website. What gives?]
Just to give readers a taste of the Oriental Morning Post interview in question, here are some of the more critical bits:

China has reached a point where public power must be checked, where public power cannot be allowed to be held ransom by vested interests, which cannot be allowed to wield monopoly power, the power to control massive amounts of limited resources.
One aspect is the [need to] protest small and medium-sized enterprises, allowing them produce and operate more efficiently. Another aspect is that if the resources state-owned enterprises control without cost are exchanged at cost under a market system, this will release greater efficiencies. Only in this way can the country move forward, and wealth be more plentiful.
The Goal of State-Owned Enterprises Should Be Public Benefit
The trend of reforms is to remove the monopoly rights of state-owned enterprises, the end the preferential treatment of state-owned enterprises — for example, it not acceptable that they hold national land for free and pay not rent. Aside from this, we must cancel the right of state-owned enterprises to obtain preferential loans.
. . . The State Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council should supervise state-owned enterprises on behalf of the people, but it has not taken on this responsibility. In fact, it has represented SOEs in bargaining with the people.
The government is the government of all companies in society, not just the government of the state-owned enterprises. Therefore, the trend of reform is to cancel the monopoly power of the state-owned enterprises, and cancel out preferential treatment of the state-owned enterprises. . .

Sheng makes his point directly enough, but these ideas are not especially provocative, and they hardly seem enough on their own to merit the dismissal of publisher Lu Yan (陆炎) and the suspension of deputy editor Sun Jian (孙鉴).
These are interesting cases in which the really sensitive issues are not in the reports that supposedly occasioned the propaganda actions, but rather in the actions themselves. In other words, while the supposed problem content is still readily available, the authorities are working actively to contain news and discussion of the disciplinary actions.
As Lawyer Zhang Huan noted on Weibo yesterday, much of the discussion of the disciplinary actions against the paper’s in online chat rooms was already being blocked. Search “Lu Yan” + “Oriental Morning Post” on Baidu, for example, and you got a thread at KDnet that was already dead, yielding up a “Page Cannot Be Found” warning.

And as plenty of examples in the JMSC’s “Deleted Posts” archive at the University of Hong Kong show, discussion of the cases on Sina Weibo was also being routinely thwarted.
Here for example, is a deleted post sharing an image of a report on the Oriental Morning Post story by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily.

Perhaps more information on these two mysterious disciplinary actions against leading commercial newspapers will be available in due course. For the time being, the issue to watch closely is how both papers continue to cover the news in the coming weeks and months.
Ever since the 2008 milk scandal, the Oriental Morning Post in particular has distinguished itself with its strong reporting. The paper did some of the best coverage of last year’s high-speed rail collision, which will mark its one-year anniversary on July 23. And it was one of the few newspapers in the country to speak out last fall on the continued detention of blind activist Chen Guangcheng.

CMP has confirmed today that the editor-in-chief of the New Express, a spin-off of Guangzhou’s Yangcheng Evening News, has been shuffled sideways in a move that effectively spells his removal as editor-in-chief of the popular newspaper.
The action against Lu Fumin (陆扶民), who has worked as a journalist for twenty years, apparently stems from a decision by the New Express to re-run a July 9 article from Jinan Daily, the official city-level Party newspaper in Jinan in Shandong province. That article, which explored the origins as “educated youth” (知青) of several current members of China’s politburo, including presumed president-in-waiting Xi Jinping, occupied a full page in the July 10 edition of the New Express.
The page in question, A23, is no longer available on the list of pages in the electronic version of the New Express.

[ABOVE: Lu Fumin will no longer serve as editor-in-chief of the New Express. He has been shoved sideways into a position of equal rank at its parent paper, Yangcheng Evening News.
But this incident appears also to have prompted what some media insiders are calling a complete overhaul of the New Express, focusing the paper more on entertainment coverage and less on hard news.
The Jinan Daily article on Xi Jinping and other politburo members, which ran on the last page (page 10) of the newspaper, was still available online as of 5pm today, July 17, 2012.

Other politburo members in the Jinan Daily article include: Li Keqiang (李克强), now vice-premier and assumed successor to Wen Jiabao as premier; Wang Qishan (王岐山), vice-premier and former mayor of Beijing; Li Yuanchao (李源潮), head of the Organization Department of the CCP and a rising political star; and Zhang Dejiang (张德江), vice-premier and former Party secretary of Guangdong province.

[ABOVE: This photograph published in the July 9 edition of Jinan Daily claims to show China’s presumed next president, Xi Jinping (middle, front row), heading off to college in the late 1970s.
Writing in the comment section trailing one online version of the Jinan Daily article on the popular Sohu.com website, one internet user puzzled: “What is the crime in the New Express passing this [article] along?”

[ABOVE: What’s the big deal? asks a user in the comment section on the Jinan Daily story at Sohu.com.
In a post to Sina Weibo at 5:05pm yesterday, Lu Fumin was circumspect about the nature of the changes at the New Express:

To have grown up alongside the New Express has been a great joy of my life. But in line with work requirements, from today on, this person will return to work at the political and cultural news desk (政文新闻部) of Yangcheng Evening News. My roots are at Yangcheng, and last year I asked to be “returned home”, so today I’ve finally gotten my wish. Thank you for all the concern from my colleagues.
能与新快报一起成长是我人生一大幸事。但根据工作需要，从今天起，本人重返羊城晚报政文新闻部工作。我的根在羊晚，去年就请求＂回家＂，今天终于得偿所愿。感谢同学们的关心。

In May 2012, People’s Daily Online, the online version of the Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper, reported that “100 poets, artists and calligraphers” from all over the country assembled in Hubei province to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s Yan’an speeches on arts and literature, which essentially set the stage for the arts as political tools of the Chinese Communist Party after it came to power in 1949. In this cartoon by artist Kuang Biao (邝彪), drawn for the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Yan’an speeches and shared on Sina Weibo and elsewhere on the internet, a stern-faced Party official in a black trench coat walks the mangy dog of Party-run culture. The dog’s head is a hand brandishing a pen.

The following post by a Beijing-based accountant with 26,000 Weibo followers, was deleted from Sina Weibo on July 15, 2012. The post relates a conversation over lunch in which Chinese diners come to the conclusion that China in fact is the country that most discriminates against China — which is to say, against Chinese. [More on deleted posts at the WeiboScope Search, by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre].

When we were eating lunch, everyone was talking about which country discriminates most against China. From that point on the list filled up with [examples] of [how China itself is] the most discriminatory place in the world for Chinese: preventing Chinese from freely coming and going, limiting Chinese in purchasing homes, preventing Chinese from buying cars, limiting Chinese children in going freely to school, forcing Chinese to pay higher taxes, making Chinese pay higher prices for fuel, and higher prices for internet access, giving Chinese hogwash oil [to eat] and Mengniu milk powder [to drink], intruding on the rights of Chinese to have elections . . . After that, no one had anything else to say.

The original Chinese post follows:

中午吃饭，大家讨论哪个国家最排华？于是开始列举，全世界最排华的地方在哪里：限制华人自由出入、限制华人买房、限制华人买车、限制华人子女自由上学、强迫华人缴纳更高的税、限制华人购买更高价的油价、缴纳更贵的网费、给华人吃地沟油蒙牛奶粉，剥夺华人选举权……最后，所有人都不说话了（转发）

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.