A roundup of online political cartoons from the past two weeks. Click any image to launch the slideshow view.
Last Friday, officials in Lanzhou, Gansu Province shut off water supply to one municipal district and warned all other residents not to drink tap water after authorities discovered city water to contain levels of benzene 20 times higher than the national safety level.
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- While enjoying a bowl of Lanzhou beef lamian (兰州牛肉面), a noodle soup that is massively popular throughout China, a patron reads a sign: “This restaurant’s owner is from Lanzhou, but the tap water isn’t!” (Xiao Guai 小乖)
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- “Toxic Water” (Badiucao 把丢草/CDT). Authorities have announced a probe into the local operations of Veolia Environment, a French firm that owns a 45 percent stake in the city’s water supply that is suspected of delaying reports of the contamination. Authorities said that the contamination came from nearby chemical plants, and this scandal comes amid a recently launched central government “war against pollution.” Two weeks prior in Guangdong Province…
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- “The Maoming Confrontation” (Badicao 巴丢草/CDT) …On March 30, protests erupted against a proposed paraxylene (PX) chemical plant in Maoming. Those protesting against the environmental risks of the PX plant met a harsh crackdown that allegedly left several dead and dozens more injured. Other cities in the southern province staged protests against the proposed plant and the violent crackdown on Maoming demonstrators. State media denied any deaths in Maoming, stressed that the plant was merely proposed and wouldn’t go ahead without public approval, and also expounded the relative safety and economic benefits of domestic PX production.
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- This cartoon shows Xi Jinping engaged in beating down a fellow “tiger”. The Xi administration’s ongoing crackdown on corruption recently toppled another ally of Zhou Yongkang—an indication that the former security chief who wielded immense party power at the time of his 2012 retirement may soon be formally charged. As the net may soon tighten around Zhou, many commentators have noted the risks that might come to the CCP with Xi hunting for “tigers” in the high echelons of power. (Chengtao Manhua 漫画漫画)
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- In Paris while on his maiden tour of Europe late last month, Xi Jinping evoked a quote usually attributed to Napoleon: “China is a sleeping lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world.” He then went on to assure his French audience that, while indeed now awake, China is a “peaceful, pleasant, and civilized” lion. In this cartoon, Xi is portrayed as another animal representative of China, rubbing sleep from his eyes. While a cute demeanor and tendency to move slowly has led to a popular assumption that pandas are docile, they have been known to attack humans. (Jiu’an Manhua 鳩鵪漫畫)
Check out more cartoons at CDT Chinese.
