"Constitution Day" in China

[Randy W]

On First Annual Constitution Day, China’s Most Censored Word Was ‘Constitution’

On Dec. 4, China’s first annual Constitution Day, Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily posted the complete text of the Chinese constitution to its Weibo microblogging account, accompanied by the upbeat hashtag: “Let’s all read the Constitution!”

 

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On Dec. 3 and 4, the word “constitution” became the most highly censored term on Weibo, according to Weiboscope, a project of the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre that monitors online censorship in China; and on Dec. 4, “constitutionalism” joined the list of most-censored words. Searches for “constitution” and “constitutionalism” on Tieba, a popular discussion platform, were also blocked on Dec. 4 and 5. Censors also scrubbed non-critical posts that simply quoted the constitution. One user posted the full text of Article 35 on his own Weibo account, along with the comment, “Today is China’s first Constitution Day” and the hashtag “Study the Constitution.” Internet censors quickly found and deleted his post.