Published 13:13 IST, June 20th 2020
Why Chi*a banned the letter "n" and top 5 bizarre words censored by Xi Jinping's govt
As people of China find new ways to mask their dissent against Xi's oppressive regime, his govt rakes up tech censorship to hide more words on social media
President Xi Jinping's power grab in 2013 turned a lot of heads and paved the way for what could only be described as a slow yet steady slip towards authoritarianism. Since his re-election in 2018, when he successfully got the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Communist Party of China (CPC)to abolish term limits for the presidency, there has been no looking back for the Chinese premier.
Xi Jinping, only days after the CPC opened the doorway for him to continue his rule indefinitely, laid down some of the strongest censorship tools the country has ever see, perhaps even the world. It was so meticulous that China quickly started banning words in every language that could be possible expressions of dissent.
While his reign has been led government organisations to curate an extensive list of words popular on microblogging site Weibo (Twitter equivalent in China) and other print and digital media platforms, it is imperative to note that his regime has raked up some truly bizarre words that refer to Xi Jinping.
In a truly astonishing yet bizarre move, China once banned, for a brief period, the English alphabet 'N'. Imagine spelling China without "n". According to a professor of Chinese language at the University of Pennsylvania, banning individual alphabet was a part of a 'widespread censorship clampdown.' It extended to "N" because it also referred to the number of terms Xi Jinping could stay in office, "n" meaning the mathematical equation n>2.
Here are the top 5 bizarre words and phrases banned by China under Xi's rule:
"Winnie the Pooh"
"Immortality
"Lifelong control"
"Shameless"
"Xi Zedong" - a hybrid of the names Xi and Chairman
Ironically enough, George Orwell's dystopian novels Animal Farm and 1984, which describe a fictional world where authoritarian leaders in the form of animals strictly control the populations under them are also banned.
A somewhat unusual phrase "to board a place" was also banned in China, owing to its homophonic reference to the Chinese term "to ascend the throne". And in an entirely obnoxious yet blatant example of curbing free speech, the word disagree is also illegal to post on social media. It will immediately be flagged and the post will be taken down.
Why were these words banned?
Students and the general youth who were tired of Beijing's scrupulous watchdog methods of keeping its citizens under its oppressive thumb began voicing their concerns on social media and it fell on the government's radar as more and more people actively took to the internet to express their distraught with Xi's government and the Communist leadership.
The censorship was put in place initially to monitor and block social media posts and searches that hinted towards any criticism of Xi Jinping's term limit announcement. Shortly after the NPC made the announcement, viral posts started flagging up on Weibo, which were then promptly deleted by censors and word bans were effectively put in place starting 2013.
When users attempted to publish banned terms, an error message popped up: "Sorry, this content violates the relevant laws and regulations on Weibo's terms of service."
As more and more words were banned, the Chinese people kept finding new ways to mask their dissent against Xi's oppressive regime. However, their sense of humour, wit and zeal for freedom was ostensibly not shared by China's increasingly autocratic internet "tsars".
Updated 13:13 IST, June 20th 2020