Saturday, March 30, 2013

Sina Weibo Censors Searches Related to Thousands of Dead Pigs Found Floating in Shanghai River


On March 27, 2013, China's official news service Xinhua published an article entitled "Coordinate Social Management, End Pig Dumping." An excerpt:
In his 2006 novel "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out," China's Nobel Laureate Mo Yan tells a story of dead pigs being illegally dumped into a river at night, after authorities refuse to offer farmers subsidies to properly dispose of the carcasses.
Unfortunately, life recently imitated art, and over 14,000 pig carcasses had been retrieved from a section of the Huangpu River near Shanghai as of last week.
While the dead pigs didn't end up on dinner tables, they did become a point of concern for Shanghai's 20 million residents, for whom the Huangpu River is a major source of drinking water.
The case had revealed a lack of coordination in China's social management strategies, in which solving one problem often creates another.
This screenshot was taken on March 15, and shows that a search for "Pigs Tossed Shanghai" (猪投上海) on Sina Weibo returned no results, just a censorship notice.

This screenshot was taken on March 25, and shows that a search for "Huangpu River Dead Pigs" (黄浦江 死猪) on Sina Weibo returned no results, just a censorship notice.


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...