Voices — Dissidents Don’t Exist in China?

• 

@中国草根大学 posted a photo of  Mr. Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the caption, “Dissidents with different political views don’t exist in China.” ^[Chinese] Apparently, Mr. Ma made this statement in February 2010 in response to questions about the conviction of Liu Xiaobo. [See this report from Singapore's Zaobao in Chinese.]

Even though the statement was made more than two years ago, the photo has still attracted over 2,000 comments and almost 7,500 retweets on Weibo, China’s Twitter, in less than two days.

Writer Zhong Yilin (@钟宜霖):   Do you all think [dissidents] exist? Do I count?

@弘信周建瑞: Is this a threat???

@蒙面黑侠99: He is totally right. They are eliminated as soon as they emerge.

Historian Zhang Lifan (@章立凡): There is a species of animal called ostrich [that sticks its head in the sand]. There is a type of thug called spokesperson.

@饭n饭: They got eliminated by the biggest Mafia of them all, isn’t that right Gangster Ma?

@永远-小西: Those who believe this statement also don’t exist.

@hmd11: Telling such lies? He has a great future [in the government].

Looks like @hmd11 is right. Mr. Ma is now an Assistant Foreign Minister.

•