Chinese authorities fined a talk show and stand-up comedy production company about $2 million and suspended its performances in at least two major cities “indefinitely” after a comedian joked about a Xi Jinping military slogan last weekend.
(Bloomberg) — Chinese authorities fined a talk show and stand-up comedy production company about $2 million and suspended its performances in at least two major cities “indefinitely” after a comedian joked about a Xi Jinping military slogan last weekend.
The company Xiaoguo and comedian Li Haoshi caused “grave insults” to the People’s Liberation Army, Beijing’s Municipal Cultural and Tourism Bureau said in a statement on its WeChat account Wednesday.
Separately, police in Beijing announced late Wednesday that they were probing Li for “seriously insulting the PLA.” The comedian’s remarks caused a “bad impact to the society,” according to a statement from the local public security bureau of the capital city’s Chaoyang district.
The bureau fined Xiaoguo 13.4 million yuan ($1.9 million) for the incident, adding it would confiscate another 1.33 million yuan of what it called “illegal gains,” though it didn’t elaborate.
Read More: China Probes Comedian for Mocking Xi Jinping Military Slogan
It’s the latest fallout from Li’s stand-up routine Saturday, in which he described two wild dogs he’d seen as “having a good work style, being able to fight and win battles.” That was a play on a slogan Xi had once delivered to a PLA gathering that subsequently featured in a popular military song.
In a sign of the growing fallout, Shanghai’s own bureau overseeing tourism and cultural matters said Wednesday on WeChat that it had also suspended the company’s performances in the city, and asked for “internal management rectification.”
Shanghai and its citizens have “sincere and deep feelings for the people’s army,” according to the statement. “We will not allow any company or person to slander the honor and dignity of the people’s army in any way!”
A recording of the segment posted to China’s Twitter-like Weibo shows the audience laughing, but it later sparked an online furor after one viewer called Li’s remarks insensitive.
Along with the official probe into the company, state media outlets including the PLA News Media Center condemned the performance as “harmful,” even as some people online questioned whether the joke had been taken too seriously.
China enacted a law in 2021 criminalizing insults against the military. In Wednesday’s statement, Beijing’s cultural authorities said Xiaoguo and Li had “wantonly altered” the contents of a pre-approved performance, adding that they’d face further legal responsibilities, without elaboration.
Xiaoguo has apologized, according to local media reports, which cited the company as saying that Li’s contract had been terminated. Xiaoguo also pledged to overhaul its shows and set up a department to moderate and vet comedian routines.
–With assistance from Selina Xu, Low De Wei and Li Liu.
(Updates with Beijing police probe in the third paragraph.)
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