A newspaper of the ruling Communist Party said Saturday that no religion is above the law in China, urging officials to stay firm while dealing with a rare protest over the planned demolition of a massive mosque in the northwest.
The Global Times said that local officials in the town of Weizhou in Ningxia, a region that’s home to many ethnic minority Hui Muslims, must act against what it described as an illegal expansion of a religious building.
Thousands of Hui people gathered at the towering Grand Mosque on Thursday and Friday to prevent authorities from demolishing the structure, residents contacted by The Associated Press said. It was a rare public pushback to the party’s efforts to rewrite how religions are practiced in the country.
“People are in a lot of pain,” said Ma Sengming, a 72-year-old man who was at the protest from Thursday morning until Friday afternoon. “Many people were crying. We can’t understand why this is happening.” – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Disney’s new film, “Christopher Robin” will not be allowed in China after the government blocked its release there.
Although the Chinese government did not offer a reason for the ban, Beijing has been banning images of Winnie the Pooh since the character started being used to mock Chinese President Xi Jinping, Fox News reported.
Beginning in 2013, social media users began comparing Xi to the bear of very little brain. An image of Xi walking next to former President Barack Obama was soon twinned with one of Pooh walking next to Tigger.
A bear, however hard he tries, Falls foul of Chinese censors' eyes https://t.co/ToOCHHZT7I pic.twitter.com/8H9ITqIc1M
— Financial Times (@FT) July 16, 2017
Individuals wanting to indirectly protest against the Chinese government kept up the comparisons, leading China to block images of Pooh on social media, the BBCreported.
China also has blocked Western efforts to mock its ban on Pooh. In June, HBO was blocked after “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver mocked Xi on the issue of being compared to Pooh.
The company Global Risk Insights, in a blog post, offered its reasons for the ban.
“The government’s reaction is disproportionate and puzzling for two reasons. Firstly, where some see harmless fun, Beijing sees a serious effort to undermine the dignity of the presidential office and Xi himself,” the company wrote.
“Authoritarian regimes are often touchy, yet the backlash is confusing since the government is effectively squashing a potential positive, and organic, public image campaign for Xi,” Global Risk Insights continued, naming the 2015 image China’s “most censored image of 2015.”
“Beijing’s attack on Winnie the Pooh may be farcical, but it is also an indication of more serious trends in China’s media,” the post added. – READ MORE
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