Web Sites Censor Searches, Delete Story About Anti-Corruption Agency's Car Purchases

On February 21, 2013, the following was posted on the verified Tencent Weibo account Tencent (one of China's largest Internet companies):

[Chinese Communist Party Central Discipline Inspection Commission Contributes 75 Million for Subordinate Departments to Distribute Officials Cars] On February 19, the Inspection Department of the Communist Party Central Discipline Inspection Commission held a ceremony in Hami, Xinjiang to distribute official cars to village and township discipline committees, with the first group of 37 official use cars going to the residential discipline committees in the 37 townships that comprise Hami's two counties and one municipality. The Central Discipline Inspection Commission dedicated a special fund of 75 million to provide 1,018 transportation vehicles for all of Xinjiang's village and township Central Discipline Inspection Departments.
【中纪委斥资7500万为下属部门配公车】2月19日，由中央纪委监察部为新疆乡镇纪委配备车辆发车仪式在新疆哈密举行，首批37辆办公办案用车分发给了新疆哈密两县一市37个乡镇（街道）纪委。此次中央纪委拨专项资金7500万元，为新疆所有乡镇（街道）纪检组织配发交通车辆1018辆。http://url.cn/BOy4Hv

Original URL: http://t.qq.com/p/t/258015046182708

These screenshots show that Tencent deleted this post on February 23.

This screenshot shows that a Baidu search for the title of the Tencent article returned no results, just a censorship notice.

By February 23 the article had been deleted from Tencent's web site - original URL: http://news.qq.com/a/20130221/000523.htm - and it had also been deleted from most other web sites where it had been reposted:

• http://pic.news.sohu.com/group-416964.shtml
• http://news.ifeng.com/photo/hdnews/detail_2013_02/21/22343445_0.shtml
• http://news.163.com/photoview/00AN0001/32058.html
• http://roll.sohu.com/20130222/n366719864.shtml

These screenshots, taken on February 23, show that a search on Baidu for "Central Discipline Inspection Commission 7,500" (中纪委 7500) returns results that include the deleted story and no censorship notice, while a search for "Central Discipline Commission 75 Million" (中纪委 7500万) only returns results from Baidu's strict white list, which comprises about a dozen web sites controlled by the central government and the Communist Party, none of which has carried the report.

A similar report was published by the People's Daily under the title "Central Discipline Inspection Commission Investigation Department Contributes 1,018 Vehicles for Xinjiang Township and Village Discipline Commissions" (中纪委监察部为新疆乡镇纪委配车1018辆).

That article has not been removed, but this screenshot shows that Baidu was also restricting searches for "Central Discipline Inspection Commission Xinjiang" (中纪委 新疆) to its strict white list.