John Oliver’s Current Events Show Censored in China

Any virtual presence of John Oliver has been obliterated by Chinese social media, via blogging site Weibo, after the comedian’s most recent episode of “Last Week Tonight.” The main segment of said program involved an analysis of Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Oliver’s segment on Xi lasted 20 minutes and took a critical view of his policies, including the potential for a dictatorship with the elimination of presidential term limits and the continual leverage that China can exert upon the global economy in spite of its humanitarian flaws. One of the other points Oliver brought up was China’s ardent policy of censorship and willingness to abolish even the vaguest allusions to criticism or dissent of the government.

Like clockwork, Chinese media was soon completely purged of any recent content regarding John Oliver or his HBO program. While users can still skim the web for Oliver’s name, nothing appears in China’s internet after June 12. Anyone seeking to pierce the veil of censorship is met with an error message describing the desired content as a violation of regulations within Weibo. While Last Week Tonight is not a show that sees itself broadcast throughout China, footage and clips from such late night television shows tend to slip into the Chinese web community through uploads and shares to social media platforms. Currently, Oliver remains visible on other Chinese social media like WeChat and QQ with the sole exception of Oliver’s criticism of the country’s president.

The episode in question took a variety of tones regarding its feature segment, written with the awareness that most countries know relatively little about China and China knows relatively little about the world. At one point, Oliver shows bemusement at the long-standing insecurity Xi’s presidency has held toward children’s book character, Winnie the Pooh; apparently, many Chinese dissidents have compared Xi’s appearance to the chubby, yellow talking bear. The tone shifted to serious upon addressing matters like Tiananmen Square, the imprisonment of pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, the religious persecution of Islamic Uyghurs throughout Western China and plans for a massive intercontinental highway to expedite the transport of goods.

Oliver concluded his essay by addressing China’s increasingly authoritarian views on governing its citizens, cautioning viewers to take a critical assessment of dealing with China’s growing economic dominance. The episode’s final segment involved a parody of the English promotional video for Xi’s road project and had children singing about Xi’s China.