The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
Don’t hype or embellish the article “Forbes Announces the 100 Most Powerful Women; Peng Liyuan Comes in at 57” [Chinese]. (May 30, 2014)
对《福布斯百大权势女性出炉 彭丽媛排第57位 》一文不要炒作渲染。
Forbes released their 11th annual list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” this week. The American business magazine ranked Peng Liyuan, First Lady of China, at number 57. From Forbes’ profile:
Parallels between China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan and her U.S. counterpart, Michelle Obama, include their sharp sense of style, prominence on the global stage, and commitment to their nation’s health and education. Peng promotes rural education in China and campaigns against tuberculosis for the World Health Organization. China’s most public first lady since Madame Mao, she toured with her husband, Xi Jinping, during his first and second presidential trips abroad after he was elected in 2013, and was credited with putting a human face on the Communist regime. She is a member of the Public Diplomacy Association, an organized tasked to make China more appealing abroad. Life under the national gaze isn’t new to Peng, though. Before becoming first lady, she was a fixture on national magazine covers and television shows during her three-decade career as a folk star. [Source]
A pop-cultural figure long before becoming China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan became the first high-leader’s wife in the public spotlight since the downfall of Jiang Qing, the infamous wife of Mao Zedong. China’s censors have previously regulated media discussion of Peng’s cellphone photography and fashion sense, and last year a Weibo user’s account was swiftly deleted after drawing attention to Peng’s serenading of troops in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago.
CDT collects directives from a variety of sources and checks them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
