Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Web Sites Censor Speculation That Xinhua Photoshopped a Photo of Li Keqiang

On December 24, 2012, Xinhua published an English language article entitled "Li Keqiang: A Man Who Puts People first."

The article included several photos showing Li Keqiang, including this one.

Within hours, Internet users began posting claims that the photo was a fake. For example, this screenshot shows an article posted on the same day on the Tianya blog here -  - entitled "Why Did Xinhua Use a PS'd Photo to Promote Li Keqiang?" (新华社推出李克强的照片 为什么用PS过的? - "PS" is shorthand for "photoshopped"). The post was deleted on December 25.

These screenshots show that, also at some time on December 25, Sina Weibo began censoring searches for "Xinhua PS" (新华社 PS).

Several users pointed out that the photo in question looks remarkably similar to one that is available on the Guangming Daily web site here - http://difang.gmw.cn/ln/node_29590.htm.

Translation: Sun Daluo's Court Judgment for Sharing Books and Articles

The PRC government sentenced Sun Zhiming (孙志明, who wrote under the alias Sun Daluo (孙大骆)) to one year imprisonment for the crime of "di...