A roundup of online political cartoons from the past two weeks. Click any image to launch gallery view.
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- The “new” Director of the State Bureau of Letters and Calls warmly welcomes petitioners to his office. In the past few weeks, Chinese netizens have turned to the White House petition platform We the People for redress of all kinds of issues. A petition created on May 3 to deport Jasmine Sun, a suspect in the 1995 thallium poisoning of university student Zhu Ling, has well over the 100,000 signatures needed for an official response. Later, a young woman in Chengdu was questioned by the police after she posted a petition to stop construction of a petrochemical plant. (Jiangshan Chengwen)
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- Even Detective Conan, the boy sleuth bearing a strange resemblance to Dr. Who, is at a loss in solving Zhu Ling’s case. Zhu was poisoned by thallium while studying at Tsinghua University, one of China’s premier universities, 19 years ago. The thallium left her wheelchair-bound and profoundly mentally impaired. Images of We the People petitions, lost evidence, and blocked online sources swirl in Conan’s head. (Meng Chengshang)
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- Xi Jinping promised in January that neither “tigers and flies” would be spared from his administration’s anti-corruption campaign. Just yesterday, a formal investigation into Liu Tienan for disciplinary violations was announced, after months of accusations by prominent journalist Luo Changping. Meanwhile, citizens publicly demanding that officials disclose their assets have been detained, and activist Liu Ping is being held for alleged “subversion,” a charge that could lead to years in prison. Fighting corruption appears to be nothing but an act. (source unknown)
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- A directive leaked on Weibo last week which orders universities to forbid seven topics from classroom discussion: “freedom of the press, a civil society, civic rights, historical mistakes committed by the Communist Party, elite cronyism, and an independent judiciary” (translated by South China Morning Post). Here, Lady Liberty is shushed by seven elderly captors, representing the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee. (Badiucao)
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The death of a young migrant worker in Beijing, who fell from the top of the mall where she worked on May 3, stoked her fellow workers to protest last week. The Beijing police have concluded that she committed suicide, but many doubt that Yuan Liya, a 22-year-old sending money home for her father’s cancer treatment, would kill herself. A “non-suicide vow” circulated on Weibo late last week, much like this animated pledge by Cheng Tao:
I am Cheng Tao. I’m a lively, cheerful fatso. I love life and animation. I have no history of mental illness. No matter how horrendous the circumstance, I promise to never commit suicide. Any mishap which may befall me is homicide, and I ask my fellow netizens to pursue the case!
