China's Top Dog Fines Comedian $2 Million

Xi Xinping, already known for banning Winnie the Pooh in China, has just outdone himself by fining a Chinese comedy outfit $2 million and banning it in Beijing on the heels, as it were, of the following:

China's Top Dog. (Image by Palácio do Planalto, via Wikimedia Commons, license.)

Multiple outlets reported Wednesday that the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism fined the firm of popular comedian Li Haoshi, who uses the stage name House, over comments he made during a show this weekend.

In his appearance, Li mentioned he had adopted two stray dogs he was watching chase a squirrel. He said the scene made him think of a phrase used by by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that roughly translates to “Fight well, win the battle,” according to Reuters.

Audio released on Chinese social media websites show the audience laughed in response, but one audience member made a complaint, and the joke soon received criticism for being seen as disrespectful.

Initially, I was puzzled over which species was supposed to be the Chinese military, but I quickly learned that being compared to a dog is a grave insult in Chinese culture.

Whether or not the joke was intended as an insult to the Chinese military, the comparison is more apt than the comedian knows -- given that it is preparing to invade Taiwan and harass other neighboring countries, not to mention at whose behest it is doing so.

The world knows this, but the price of sharing this knowledge where Xi works to keep his own people ignorant and enslaved, is upwards of $2 million.

While this seems high, Xi does not seem to understand that the price of ignorance is much greater. One hopes the Chinese people figure this out and act before it is too late.

-- CAV