Former Prime Minister of China, Wen Jiabao, departs after the fifth plenary session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing’s Great People’s Hall, March 15, 2013. REUTERS / Jason Lee
Chinese internet companies blocked users from sharing a lengthy article written by former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in tribute to his late mother, in which he censored a high-ranking member of the ruling Communist Party, possibly because he spoke out of line.
The obituary-style article written by Wen about his mother, who recently passed away, appeared in a small weekly newspaper called the Macau Herald on Friday and was posted to a public account on the Chinese chat app WeChat on Saturday, but was quickly limited.
The heartfelt tribute details Wen’s mother’s struggles during periods of unrest in China, including the Second Sino-Japanese War and the political purges of the Cultural Revolution.
“In my opinion, China should be a country full of fairness and justice, always with respect for the will of the people, mankind and human nature,” said Wen’s article, which did not directly address China’s current political environment. .
China’s ruling Communist Party (CCP) has sought to tighten control over how internet citizens discuss history on the country’s heavily controlled internet leading up to the 100th anniversary of the party’s founding in July.
Under President Xi Jinping, the room for dissent in China has narrowed, while censorship has expanded.
Wu Qiang, an independent political analyst in Beijing, said the article represented an “alternative voice from within the party” out of step with efforts to quell dissent in recent years.
“The strength of this article by Wen is that it challenges that, and this is the main reason it shouldn’t be shared,” he said, noting the sensitivity of the party around its anniversary.
Last week, a branch of the Chinese cyber regulator launched a hotline for internet users to report ‘illegal’ comments that ‘distorted’ the party’s historical performance and attacked the country’s leadership. read more
When users attempted to share Wen’s article, a message popped up that the content violated WeChat’s regulations and could not be shared, a common censorship measure in China that is a step down from completely cleaning up articles.
On Weibo, the Chinese social media site similar to Twitter, the article was barely mentioned and comments and sharing features were disabled. Links to articles about Wen’s tribute posted on Weibo yielded “404” messages Tuesday morning, indicating that they had been removed.
The operators of WeChat and Weibo, as well as the Chinese internet regulator, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Former Chinese leaders and high profile politicians rarely cultivate public personas or share detailed biographical information in retirement, and are expected to gracefully slip out of the spotlight.
Since Xi came to power in 2012, Xi’s signature policies have been cemented in the party constitution and terms have been abolished, putting him on an almost par with the founder of communist China, Mao Zedong, in the pantheon of his leaders.
Wen, who served as Prime Minister under former Chinese leader Hu Jintao, was a leading figure behind the country’s economic policy in the 2000s and left office in 2013 when he was succeeded by current Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
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