Censorship instructions, or “Directives from the Ministry of Truth” advise media outlets on their coverage of sensitive news stories. For Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, “only Xinhua and national media copy may be used;” all websites were advised to delete a Tencent article about tensions in Hong Kong, Mainland relations; and also deemed unacceptable was a story about Zhejiang secretary and “Western hostile forces,” Finally, an article about financial services firm, UBS, setting up an offshore company for the wife and daughter of disgraced former Ministry of Railways Zhang Shuguang was ordered removed.
For coverage of what is being said on the Chinese Internet, see Netizen Voices. This week it’s reaction to the Weibo posts of Global Times chief editor, Hu Xijin.
In this week’s River Crabbed, CDT republishes a censored Weibo post by one user who finds Xi Jinping’s fruitful corruption probes unsurprising.
And finally this week’s Word of the Week: Godfather 干爹 (gāndiē), is about more than just the unsavory details of a moneyed class of men playing sugar daddy to young women:
The dependence on connections has become an increasingly pervasive part of modern Chinese culture. While children of the rich and powerful “compare fathers”, it is also said that some women “compare godfathers,” relying on these connections to obtain money, professional opportunities, and preferential treatment.
