For his latest contribution to the Hexie Farm CDT series, cartoonist Crazy Crab looks at last week’s expulsion of Al Jazeera English bureau chief Melissa Chan from China. At a press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei referred repeatedly to “relevant laws and regulations” but failed to answer foreign journalists’ questions about why Chan was not invited back to report from China. All the phrases in this cartoon come from questions asked at the press conference.
The title comes from a previous Foreign Ministry press conference, when then-spokesperson Jiang Yu answered foreign journalists’ questions about why they were roughed up while reporting on so-called Jasmine Revolution protests by telling them, “The law is not a shield!” (Read more via CDT’s Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon).
Read more about Hexie Farm’s CDT series, including a Q&A with the anonymous cartoonist, and see all cartoons so far in the series.
[CDT owns the copyright for all cartoons in the Hexie Farm CDT series. Please do not reproduce without receiving prior permission from CDT.]