China's Twitter erases John Oliver after scathing Xi Jinping skit

By Lily Kuo

 

Attempts to publish posts in China mentioning John Oliver’s name resulted in an error message. Photograph: Eric Liebowitz/AP

 

The British comedian John Oliver has been scrubbed from China’s version of Twitter after the host of Last Week Tonight ran a 20-minute segment satirising Chinese president Xi Jinping.

 

New posts mentioning his name or the show have been blocked on the microblogging site Weibo.

 

Oliver’s scathing parody of Xi on Sunday covered human rights abuses, “dystopian levels of surveillance and persecution” of Uighurs in China’s western Xinjiang province, the continued detention of Liu Xia, wife of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo who died last year in state custody, and online censorship, including memes comparing Xi’s figure with that of Winnie the Pooh.

 

“Clamping down on Winnie the Pooh comparisons doesn’t exactly project strength. It suggests a weird insecurity,” Oliver said.

 

Full Story: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jun/21/chinas-twitter-erases-john-oliver-after-scathing-xi-jinping-skit

The emerging top world power is different. Democracy is not their thing. I guess get used to it.

Well, I cant think of a single despot who had a sense of humour, and China is as bad as Thailand for pretending everything at home is rosy and that their leaders are wonderful people, who should be revered. God knows what they would do if spitting image ever came back and had a dig at them. John Oliver is normally pretty spot on with his observations though.

calling Oliver a comedian is a bit of stretch........unfunny & annoying more like.

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Clamping down on Winnie the Pooh comparisons doesn’t exactly project strength.

 

It does, if you are Eeyore and have dreams of ruling the Hundred Acre Wood forever.

His Thailand skit a couple of years ago was also unappreciated.