Fei Chang Dao: China's Search Engines and Weibos Begin Censoring Searches for Newly Founded Political Party

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

China's Search Engines and Weibos Begin Censoring Searches for Newly Founded Political Party

In early November, 2013, the image at right began to appear on the Internet. It shows a document using the letterhead of the "China Constitution First Party Committee" (中国至宪党委员会). The document, dated November 6, 2013, and entitled "Notice of the Establishment of the Zhi Xian Party" (中国至宪党成立通告) stated:

The Zhi Xian Party of China has come to be because the Constitution of the People's Republic of China has not been observed as it should by the government currently in power, and further because the individual efforts of China's citizens have been ineffectual.

中国至宪党, 是因中华人民共和国宪法在中国现实政治中没有得到应有遵守, 并在公民个人努力无以奏效的背景下, 依法产生的政党。

On November 11, 2013, the state sponsored China Daily published an article on its web site entitled "Bo Xilai Supporter Launches Political Party." Some excerpts:

Wang Zheng said in a phone interview that the Zhi Xian party was established last Wednesday in Beijing with the objective of bringing "common prosperity" – a fairer distribution of wealth – to China.

Wang, a Beijing-based lecturer, said she wrote letters to Bo about her plan to start the party – whose name roughly translates as "supreme authority of the constitution" – but named him chairman without his express consent.
. . . .
China allows a small number of officially recognised alternative parties, although they serve as advisers rather than competitors to the ruling Communist party. People have been jailed for setting up and participating in other political parties, mostly on charges of subverting state power.

These screenshots show that the day after the article appeared on the China Daily's web site, Baidu, Qihoo, Sina, and Tencent began censoring "Zhi Xian Party" and "Wang Zheng" (王铮).