A Wall Street Journal report the other day told how the government on mainland China deals with jokes. One man sent a text message to his friends about some high communist leader, and even without an informant, the cops picked him up. There's an app for that!
The man spent five days behind bars for "provoking trouble."
Another man was mad at local Chinese police for conducting DWI checks in the rain, and mentioned it, privately, on a chat. He spent five days behind bars for creating "negative social effects."
Mention the words "corruption" or "rule of law" or "human rights" in a chat message, even a private one, and the Red Chinese might come a-knocking.
And here some of us thought those days died with Chairman Mao, and that the Internet age would usher in a new time of freedom for those in the Middle Kingdom. Turns out, Beijing has its own computer experts. And they're hard at work.
Editorial on 12/13/2017