Baidu and Sina Weibo Censor Searches for North Korean Leader's Girl Band

On December 10, 2015, the state sponsored Global Times published a report entitled “Performers from N.Korea Arrive in China.” Some excerpts:

Two traveling theater companies from North Korea arrived in Northeast China's Liaoning Province on Wednesday for a series of performances in China.

The two troupes, the State Merited Chorus and the Moranbong Band, will perform in the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing from Sunday to Monday.

On December 13, 2015, the Global Times published a report entitled “DPRK Art Troupes Performance Not Staged as Scheduled.” According to the report:

A performance by two art troupes from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) cannot be staged as scheduled due to communication issues at the working level, according to relevant departments on Saturday.

China attached high importance to the cultural exchanges with the DPRK, and was ready to continue to work with it to promote the bilateral exchanges and cooperation in culture and all other areas, a press release from the departments said.

These screenshots we taken shortly after the cancellation, and show that  Baidu and Sina Weibo were censoring search results for “Moranbong Band” (牡丹峰乐团).