A bad joke. On Wednesday, Chinese authorities imposed a fine of 14.7 million yuan (nearly 2 million euros) on the Xiaoguo Culture Media company producing comedian Li Haoshi. The reason ? One of his jokes indirectly targeted the Chinese military during a stand-up show. Li Haoshi, who performs under the name “House,” had referenced a People’s Liberation Army slogan during a show Saturday in Beijing.
Beijing police said on the Weibo social network on Wednesday that they had also opened an investigation into Li Haoshi, “in accordance with the law”. The Xiaoguo Culture Media company was fined 14.7 million yuan (1.9 million euros) and all its shows have been suspended indefinitely in Beijing and Shanghai.
“Inappropriate metaphor”
Authorities further threatened the company with legal action in a country where freedom of expression has been drastically curtailed over the past decade under Xi Jinping. According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the fine follows an investigation it conducted after an onlooker testified that the joke broke the law and had “bad social impact”.
The Chinese president, throughout his tenures, has promoted strong nationalism and made building up the armed forces a political and economic priority, touting their power during national propaganda campaigns. The production company and the comedian had already apologized before Wednesday’s announcement of the sanction, calling the joke an “inappropriate metaphor”. “We have asked Li Haoshi to reflect on himself and halt all acting work until further notice,” Xiaoguo Culture Media said in a statement on Monday.
The city’s culture and tourism bureau, however, ruled that the joke violated regulations that performances should not “hurt national feelings” and “damage national honor and interests”. “We will never allow any company or individual to gratuitously 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,” authorities said.
On Weibo, a heavily censored social network where problematic content is usually removed quickly, many comments supported the sanction, saying it was “just to punish someone who makes mistakes”. A hashtag on the subject was Wednesday the most viewed on Weibo with more than 700 million searches.