BEIJING – A popular Chinese social media site is censoring discussion of “Last Week Tonight” and its HBO host John Oliver after he mocked Chinese President Xi Jinping, his apparent sensitivity about being compared to Winnie the Pooh and his country’s crackdown on human rights.
Attempts to send posts with either the terms “John Oliver” or “Last Week Tonight” on the Sina Weibo microblog Friday were met with failure messages saying “the content contains information that violates relevant laws and regulations.”
Oliver’s show last Sunday made satirical references to Xi and the way that Chinese internet users often joke that he resembles Winnie the Pooh. The show also referred to China’s internment of hundreds of thousands of members of the Muslim Uighur minority groups in political indoctrination camps.
Oliver called Xi “the man who is now emperor for life,” referring to the Chinese leader’s power grab earlier this year when presidential term limits were eliminated.
– From news service reports
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