On March 11, 2016, the state sponsored Global Times published an editorial entitled “Western Speech Freedom not Fit for China.” Some excerpts:
China is different. It is a communist country and this status quo, as a fundamental political norm, is written into its Constitution. Any denial of this norm is illegal and should be opposed. Some people argue that it is acceptable in the Western world that people can launch verbal attacks on their government and even their presidents, so why is this not allowed in China? The argument seems ostensibly reasonable, but the same activities are usually regarded differently in two divergent political and legal systems.These screenshots were taken on April 27, 2016, and show that Baidu had banned users from establishing PostBar (贴吧 Tieba) forums about "Freedom of Speech" (言论自由), "Constitutions" (宪法), and "Communism" (共产主义).
. . . .
[R]egrettably, some influential activists in public opinion abuse their freedom and propagate some subversive and destructive ideas, which have damaged the country's unity and caused some instability within the society. Measures to address these problems are inevitable.
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Some argue that it is a test of the authorities' openness, but actually, it needs all of society to draw lessons and experiences from the process.
