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Censorship China Communications Government Media Social Networks The Internet

China Censors Social Media Responses To Proposal To Abolish Presidential Terms (theverge.com) 163

Posted by BeauHD from the nod-and-smile dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Negative social media reactions in China toward the government's interest in abolishing presidential term limits have sparked a crackdown on memes since Sunday evening. China's constitution currently restricts the president and vice-president to 10 years of leadership, meaning that President Xi Jinping would have been out of power by 2023. The Party's Central Committee proposed removing a phrase in the constitution that stated the two leaders would "serve no more than two consecutive terms," according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. Authorities will vote on the proposal in March. Many took to social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo with Winnie the Pooh memes, as the animated bear resembles President Xi Jinping to some degree. Winnie the Pooh has been associated with Xi for years and this week, he donned a crown and sat on a throne, enjoying his honey pot. These memes and social media posts were then taken down, hours after the Committee's announcement, signaling that the public's reaction was more unfavorable than authorities predicted. An assortment of phrases have been filtered out by new censors, including "constitution amendment," "re-elected," "proclaim oneself as emperor," and "two term limit." The lag time between the censorship and the initial proposal indicates authorities expected the public to react less critically.
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China Censors Social Media Responses To Proposal To Abolish Presidential Terms More

China Censors Social Media Responses To Proposal To Abolish Presidential Terms

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  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • It's still an interesting change, if they declared him Emperor with an heir and everything it would still be totalitarian yet notable.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Oh contraire https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki... [wiktionary.org], that they have to censor social media, is proof they are changing from an autocracy to a democracy. That public approval was sought for the change and that the change was challenge, are both signs that democracy is definitely making a move in China.

      However the current political climate vis a vie threats and shenanigans via the US deep state threatened by growing China economic power, means that those behind the current leader of China feel more secure with th

  • I welcome our new chinese "Winnie the poo" emperor overlord.
    • Could the 'Pooh meme' be a subtle gay reference? 'Bears' (and other furry animals) are apparently now part of gay nomenclature...

  • Abolish term limits.

    That last word is important.

    Though if you meant they were going to do away with Presidential elections, TFA's title would be correct....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      China has presidential elections? So, like, anyone could run for president there, right?

      • Of course they do! There's always one candidate on the ballot, and you only get to vote if you're a ranking Party member. But it's an election, eh?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          So they're going for an alternative reading of the "one man, one vote"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Leninix ( 740791 )
      It's not real election, you could only choise from communist party selected official.
      • You could still make your displeasure with the candidate known, by not voting or by turning in a blank ballot.

        That's better than the Dutch system for picking mayors. Yup, they are not elected but appointed; usually it's some over the hill politician with a decent record, whose party's "turn" it is for the city in question. They tried mayoral elections twice, in both cases the people were allowed to choose between two pre-picked candidates from the same damn political party. Then they shelved the idea

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @08:26AM (#56199473)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:term limits are more than just a limit (Score:4, Interesting)

      by swb ( 14022 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @08:39AM (#56199531)

      There's obviously a lot to criticize in Chinese government and politics, but the CCP's 2 term limit was actually a reasonable way of signaling that while the party wasn't willing to give up their monopoly on control they also recognized the risks and danger of cult-of-personality and dynasty and was actually interested in a rational leadership selection process.

      "We're totalitarians, but its a system designed to prevent any one person from becoming dictator for life".

      The fact that they are scrapping it is interesting. I'm torn between this being a naked power grab by Xi because he wants to be dictator for life, or of this is some kind of recognition that China has many problems of an existential risk nature and that they need Xi.

      But it's not clear if this is because those threats (like corruption) are real or if Xi has just convinced them they are real and he's the only guy who can deal with them.

      • Well he jailed most of his enemies and competition in that last “corruption” purge.
      • No country needs any one man. Or if they do, allow me to refer them to the sound business advice given by my former boss: "If your company ever becomes dependent on one person... fire him".

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by swb ( 14022 )

          Well, I think the reality is that Xi isn't just one man, but more likely the leader of a CCP faction. Just like a corporate CEO is a figurehead, but really is actually an entire team of people surrounding him because one person simply doesn't have the bandwidth to run a large corporation single-handed.

          My only guess -- because really, they're all guesses because nobody *really* knows, is that Xi and his faction actually believe that China has a set of existential risks to the nation, state and party. I'd w

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ihlosi ( 895663 )
        of this is some kind of recognition that China has many problems of an existential risk nature and that they need Xi.

        Sorry, but a country - especially a People's Republic - that is reliant on one single person being a certain political office without alternative, is heading for trouble.

        What about the egalitarian thing? Everyone being replaceable? Clear chain of succession?

      • I've met a lot of native Chinese who, when the topic drifted to systems of government, insisted that they were OK with the Communist party's monopoly on power in China. That yeah it had a lot of downsides, but they were ushering in a lot of improvements too. I had a really hard time trying to convince them that those improvements probably would've happened even without the Party.

        A move like eliminating term limits lays bare the truth about the motivations of the people in power. And will probably do m

      • I'm torn between this being a naked power grab by Xi because he wants to be dictator for life, or of this is some kind of recognition that China has many problems of an existential risk nature and that they need Xi.

        You are "torn" over the topic of permitting (intent aside) the formation of a dictator-for-life in the most populous country on Earth, who also has a substantial nuclear arsenal and the largest land army? Where do you stand on the topic of Germany annexing the Sudate

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by swb ( 14022 )

          It's a long way from being torn on what Xi's motivations are and being undecided on whether totalitarian governments are a bad thing.

          Totalitarian governments are a bad thing, I think China would have been MUCH better off overhauling their political system decades ago, but it's an open question whether anyone in China could have actually done that, even Deng, without facing revolt from the party or the military.

          That being said, China is what China is and despite their problems they probably have made a lot o

    • they are an international banner of confidence in your ruling party and the structure of your government. See, they act as a sort of tacit checks-and-balances against entrench-able things like perpetual rent-seeking, cronyism, and the types of long-running blood feuds that plague monarchical institutions like Saudi Arabia. Your best case scenario is that the policy your party seeks to advance is carried through without the dependency of a figurehead. Candidly, Nixon hated blacks and jews, but public policy for medicare and construction funding didnt become contingent upon an antisemites judgement of 3/5ths of a man. Once you abolish the term limit, you quietly acknowledge that any policy now has an implicit dependency on a single person. You have created a choke point in the governance of your nation.

      Dude, China is communist. Nobody votes for them.

      Even with "term limits", the communist party just selects the next guy anyway. It doesn't matter.

  • Meh. That's just China for you (Score:3)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @08:46AM (#56199559) Journal
    No doubt we will see the paid trolls come here today and defend Chinese gov on this . Mao, part 2, here we come.

    • No doubt we will see the paid trolls come here today and defend Chinese gov on this . Mao, part 2, here we come.

      indeed, they were all over hackernews the other day. The Chinese economy is slowing, now this. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

  • US Censors attempt to temper Russiagate hysteria (Score:3)

    by anyaristow ( 1448609 ) on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @09:06AM (#56199641)

    The guy who exposed the Russian troll farm in 2015 thinks the hysteria is overblown. If you report on that you get your live streaming ability cut.

    https://youtu.be/m6IeEldlcFE [youtu.be]

    • Google controled by libs (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It is well know fact that google are to be working with deep state to destroy conservative values in our america. The NSA and FBI and CIA are all working against amazing president trump and WITH clinton and soros to bring about a global new order of extremist liberal leftist rule and poeple who speak out are branded as russia citizens and ignored. We honest americans are being destroyed too.

  • Hey. If the Chinese people have any backbone they'll stop this from happening. It's not like they'll be gunned down, run over and turned into a flesh pie [independent.co.uk] if they object.
  • What many western people do not understand that in China's politics, often the true leader does not have to be the "official" leader. That is why I do not think Xi will have a third term, he does not need to be official the still maintain control. One reason for Xi to have a third term is "war". China would need a popular and strong President to be able to maintain social order is rough times.
    This action of removing term limits may be an indication that China is expecting a confrontation in the 2020s and t
    • It took Mao 20 years to unify the country. It took Deng Xiaoping 20 years to revolutionize the economic system. The common thought is it might be a good idea to give Papa Xi 20 years to really bring the economy into the first world.

      No one knows for sure if that's a good idea or not, and obviously to western sensibilities it looks dangerous, but that is the common reasoning. Hopefully it works out for them.

  • Population goes *Boom*!

    Seriously, their constitution has that limit put in there so that the people would only have to deal with a lunatic for maximum 10 years, thus protecting them from this kind of thing.

    If their not careful, there's going to be a large-scale revolt on their heads!

  • nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
    Tiananmen Square 1989
    limit Jintao
    nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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