When something disappears from the Internet in China, netizens joke that it has been “river-crabbed,” a play on “harmonized.” The River Crab Archive is a collection of blog post titles, weibo, and other materials deleted from their original sources on Chinese websites, either found by CDT or brought to our attention by outside projects. The editors have selected river-crabbed information of note from CDT Chinese’s ongoing compendium of the same name (河蟹档案).
@老聊V: Is it true: One thin and one thick, like peas in a pod?
@老聊V：求证：一薄一厚，成难兄难弟了？
March 20, 2013 at 2:57 p.m. (via FreeWeibo)
In this undated photo, now wiped from Sina Weibo, Bo Xilai converses with General Xu Caihou during a National People’s Congress (NPC) session. Bo has since been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and awaits trail. His name has often been a “sensitive word” online, blocked from search results on various platforms, since his former police chief Wang Lijun fled to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu last February. Since Bo’s surname (薄 Bó) is the same character for “thin” (薄 báo), netizens have at times referred to him as “Not-Thick Xilai.”
Xu Caihou was not seen at this year’s NPC, fueling rumors that he, too, has been brought down by a right-hand man [zh]. One of the outgoing vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xu is suspected of involvement with the corruption case of former Lieutenant General Gu Junshan, who was removed from his post in February 2012. Weibo user @老聊V sees the link in his given name, Caihou: the second syllable (厚 hòu) means “thick.”
Via CDT Chinese.
