When something disappears from the Internet in China, netizens joke that it has been “river-crabbed,” a play on the euphemism “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).
The following deleted weibo were selected by CDT Chinese editors from FreeWeibo.
Shen Jilan in 1953. (Xinhua)
慕容雪村: The Global Times claims that the assault on Shen Jilan does not contribute to Chinese political culture. They probably want people to disregard, even tolerate, the “Shen Jilan phenomenon.” In reality, it is precisely due to the discourse around Shen Jilan that more people are beginning to understand the basic propositions of the representative system of government: What kind of person is qualified to be a representative? What are the procedures and steps involved in becoming a representative? What makes a quality representative? If we can’t even discuss these, how can we begin to discuss political culture?
环球时报说攻击申纪兰无助于中国的政治文明，大概是希望人们无视、甚至包容“申纪兰现象”。事实上，正是通过对申纪兰现象的讨论，才让更多人明白了代议制的 几个基本命题：什么样的人才有资格当代表？当代表要经过哪些程序、哪些步骤？怎样才算是合格的代表？假如这些都不能讨论，那还谈什么政治文明？
Shen Jilan is the longest-serving representative of the National People’s Congress. She claims she owes her tenure to casting only “yes” votes. Writer Murong Xuecun has been punished for his social media outspokenness: every one of his microblog (weibo) accounts were deleted in May.
荣剑2013: They got themselves off the ground on two poles—the gun and the pen. That’s why they always say they are occupying the battleground of public opinion. When General Luo Yuan started using Weibo, he went about microblogging with that same attitude. He spoke about a zero-sum game: whatever we don’t occupy, they will. It’s the same old class warfare mentality, in which different opinions are perceived as unorthodox. Their scope grows until the people are made into the enemy. The real objective behind regulating freedom of expression is to keep the people in the dark. The essence of the two poles is violence and deceit.
他 们是依靠两杆子起家的，枪杆子和笔杆子，所以他们老是说要占领舆论阵地。罗援将军开微博，也是这个腔调，什么我们不占领，他们就要占领，一副你死我活的样 子。这依旧还是阶级斗争思维，视不同意见为异端，进而扩大化，视人民为敌。控制言论自由，目的是实行愚民政策，两杆子的实质是暴力和欺骗。
摆古论今: When Deng Xiaoping visited the United States in 1979, then U.S. president Jimmy Carter criticized China’s one-child policy as an assault on human rights. In response, Deng replied, “Would you like us to give you several million people every year then?” Upon hearing this, Carter was silent. (from the widely-circulated Chinese version) The American version: Upon hearing Deng’s suggestion, Carter burst into laughter and said, “It’s the first time I’ve ever heard a country’s leader treat their citizens as commodities that can be bought and sold.” Upon hearing this, Deng was silent. (from Carter’s memoir) Pass it on.
1979 年邓小平访美，时任美国总统卡特批评中国计划生育不讲人权，邓小平说：“那我们每年给你几千万人，如何？” 卡特听后，沉默了（广为流传的中国版本）。美国版本：卡特总统听完邓的话后哈哈大笑地说：“我还是第一次看到一个国家的领导人，把国民当物品送来送去。” 邓听后沉默了（卡特的回忆录）转
Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Wen Xin Liu.
