Chinese editor steps down after anti-government blog comment

The editor of China’s Southern Metropolitan, Yu Chen, reportedly stepped down over anti-government comments, which were posted by some unknown person, to his paper’s official micro blog. The unknown person mocked the ruling Communist Party’s claim that it
maintains control of the nation’s military.

The remarks said sarcastically that if the party insists on full control over the military, then the people should have the right to form their own army.

On the other hand, Yu Chen declared that he was no longer the Southern Metropolitan’s in-depth editor. However, he refrained from making any further comments and did not give out the reason or other details in a sign of the sensitivity of the matter.

"Let’s just leave it at that," Yu told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Hu Jia, a friend of Yu Chen said, “Yu told him he stepped down after the remarks were posted by an unknown person, a claim repeated by online media based overseas.”  

Yu had a long-term relation with the newspaper as he spent years covering blood buying rings blamed for spreading AIDS. Nobody expected him to leave in such a way. A switchboard operator said he remained listed as the in-depth editor.

The People’s Liberation Army was established in 1927 to battle Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists in China’s 22-year civil war. After largely sitting out Japan’s World War II invasion, it re-emerged to lead the communists to victory in 1949 and has remained
the party’s house army ever since, defending its interests during the chaotic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution and in suppressing pro-democracy protests in 1989.

While the comments posted to the newspaper’s microblog weren’t directly linked to Chen, authorities often hold editors and webmasters responsible for content and comments posted to their sites and expect offending material to be swiftly removed. That’s part
of the vast network of online supervision that is believed to include thousands of people policing the Internet and blocks on politically sensitive websites and banned search terms.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=24692

Posted by Irfan Khokhar on Jun 4 2012. Filed under South Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry