"To the many forms of expression deemed politically sensitive in today’s China add this one: grieving...
In the aftermath of a New Year’s Eve
stampede that killed 36 revelers on Shanghai’s historic
waterfront Bund, authorities have gone to extraordinary lengths to contain
the mourning. Why? As Shanghai media commentator Zhao Chu told the
Associated Press, tragedy can tug at “the heartstrings of the public.”
Authorities fear “losing control over the social sentiments,” Mr. Zhao was
quoted as saying.
A moment of national tragedy has illustrated one of the
great paradoxes of President Xi Jinping’s
administration: Outwardly, it looks supremely confident, yet just below the
surface lurks deep insecurity about popular discontent. Emotion is threatening
to the regime.
A similar nervous impulse toward control is behind a
crackdown on a whole range of public expression—political, artistic,
intellectual and religious—since Mr. Xi took office two years ago.
In Shanghai, distraught relatives who wanted to perform
traditional rites at the site of the tragedy on the seventh day of mourning had
to be escorted by “comforting staff.” The chaperones who were dressed in somber
colors, plus doctors in white smocks, appeared to work closely with police.
Ostensibly there to offer support, their main activity was to firmly lead each
family group along a designated route."
via The Wall Street Journal's blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/01/21/beijings-heavy-handed-response-to-shanghai-grief/
No comments:
Post a Comment