CCTV anchor suspended for anti-Mao comments

One of China's state television network's top anchors has been suspended after a video of him insulting former Communist party chairman Mao Zedong went viral.

The episode, the latest to befall troubled CCTV, highlights the way Mao continues to divide China three decades after his death.

While many revere him as a demigod and founder of modern China, others see him as a murderous villain, responsible for millions of deaths from famine and persecution that accompanied his rule.

The video, which was evidently filmed with a smartphone at a private dinner, appears to show Bi Fujian, who presents the CCTV talent show Avenue of the Stars, singing a political opera from the Cultural Revolution era of the 1960s, lacing the lyrics with sarcastic jibes.

At one point, he sings a line referring to "Chairman Mao of the Communist party".

"Don't even mention that son of a bitch, he has brought enough trouble!" grins Mr Bi.

CCTV said the video would be investigated. "We will conscientiously probe the matter and handle it seriously," the broadcaster said when announcing the suspension.

The incident comes at a time when CCTV is under fire for a series of corruption scandals that have ensnared Rui Chenggang, another top TV anchor, and his boss, the head of CCTV's business channel. Both remain incommunicado after their arrests last summer.

CCTV's president retired on Monday and was replaced by Nie Zhenxi, vice head of the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television, the official censorship body.

Zhang Lifen, a historian and popular blogger, said the viral video of Mr Bi "posed a challenge" to CCTV's new head.

"Bi was in a private setting and the video was made public online, should CCTV punish him? By the written rules, they cannot punish him for his private life, but by the unwritten rules, he is a man of the system, and they need to make a point," he said.

Mr Bi is listed as a "goodwill ambassador" on the website of a pro-Mao educational foundation, the National Red Army School Programme, devoted to building schools in "Red" regions of China that were communist strongholds during the 1949 revolution.

The foundation said that it had fired Mr Bi due to the video. Mr Bi could not be contacted and has made no public comment on the video or his suspension from CCTV.

Mao not only divides modern China, but even splits the public personas of China's elite from their private views, as Mr Bi's private joke appears to demonstrate.

Mao was never officially denounced, except for his successor Deng Xiaoping's elliptical claim that Mao was "70 per cent right and 30 per cent wrong". Portraits of Mao continue to be ubiquitous in China, and his face still adorns Tiananmen square, as well as China's banknotes.

"The incident shows the schizophrenia of those inside the system," said Mr Zhang.

"In public, Mao's image and significance is still defended, but in private they have a different view. So the system has this self-contradicting theory, a split personality when it comes to the view on Mao, and people evade this topic."

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation