Authorities in China on Wednesday (May 17) issued a fine of milions of yuan to a comedy company after a member made an oblique joke abouth the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during a stand-up act. The company has been threatened with further legal action. AFP reported that an audio posted on China’s social media network Weibo showed Li Haoshi, who performs under the name House, referring to a PLA slogan during a show in Beijing on Saturday.
Li was talking about his pet dogs chasing a squirrel when he referred to the slogan “Good style of work, capable of winning battles”.
Authorities swing into action
Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau in Beijing said it had investigated the comedy company after a report from a member of the public. The bureau saod that it found the joke had broken the law and “caused a bad social impact”
Xiaoguo Culture Media was fined 14.7 million yuan ($2.13 million) and had all its future performances suspended indefinitely in both Beijing and Shanghai.
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Beijing police took to Weibo to say that an investigation had been opene into Li “in accordance with the law”
Under President Xi Jinping, the space for dissent has shrunk dramatically in China, especially over the past decade. Online censorship has been tightened by the authorities and they have cracked down on independent media and artistic expression.
Xi has promoted a muscular, hardline nationalism and has made boosting the capabilities of the armed forces a political and economic priority, extolling their strength in domestic propaganda campaigns.
Li and Xiaoguo had already apologised for their performance. They described the particular joke as an “inappropriate metaphor”.
“After the performance that day, we immediately criticised House seriously, asked him to reflect on himself, and stopped all his subsequent acting work indefinitely,” a Xiaoguo statement posted on Monday said.
‘National feelings’ hurt
However, the bureau said that the joke had broken a regulation that says that such performances should not “hurt national feelings” or “damage national honour and interests”. It said the show should have been stopped when the rule was breached, further compounding the punishment.
“The People’s Army is the strong guardian of national security and people’s peace,” the bureau said.
“We will never allow any company or individual to wantonly denigrate the glorious image of the People’s Army on the stage of the capital, (and) hurt the deep feelings of the people towards their army.”
AFP reported that a hashtag connected to the issue was the most searched on Weibo on Wednesday. There reportedly were more than 700 million hits.
Many of the comments supported the punishment, although Weibo is heavily censored and problematic content is usually removed quickly.
“We could do without stand-up comedians and stars, but we could not do without the people’s own army!” one comment said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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