The Censorship Pendulum

[Commentary] If you want to understand the current state of self-expression in China, the best indicator must be the line “Sorry, the text has been deleted.” 2013 began as a relatively permissive period for expression of opinion. Following the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party, in November 2012, officials both in Beijing and in the provinces acknowledged the need to heed criticisms coming from the people. Such criticism was not to be found in the official media, of course, so one had to go looking for it in the world of Weibo, the microblogging site. But often you wouldn’t find the criticisms there, either, because Weibo was chock-full of the message, “Sorry, the text has been deleted.” The contrast between official welcoming of criticism and actual resistance to it is both contradictory and completely normal. For many party officials, the more sharply they are criticized, the more embarrassingly their lack of administrative acumen is exposed. So they welcome criticism (if at all) only when delivered in private.

[Yu Ha is the author of “Boy in the Twilight” and other books.]