"To the many forms of expression deemed politically sensitive in today’s China add this one: grieving...
In the aftermath of a New Year’s Eve stampede that killed 36 revelers on Shanghai’s historic waterfront Bund, authorities have gone to extraordinary lengths to contain the mourning. Why? As Shanghai media commentator Zhao Chu told the Associated Press, tragedy can tug at “the heartstrings of the public.” Authorities fear “losing control over the social sentiments,” Mr. Zhao was quoted as saying.
A moment of national tragedy has illustrated one of the great paradoxes of President Xi Jinping’s administration: Outwardly, it looks supremely confident, yet just below the surface lurks deep insecurity about popular discontent. Emotion is threatening to the regime.
A similar nervous impulse toward control is behind a crackdown on a whole range of public expression—political, artistic, intellectual and religious—since Mr. Xi took office two years ago.
In Shanghai, distraught relatives who wanted to perform traditional rites at the site of the tragedy on the seventh day of mourning had to be escorted by “comforting staff.” The chaperones who were dressed in somber colors, plus doctors in white smocks, appeared to work closely with police. Ostensibly there to offer support, their main activity was to firmly lead each family group along a designated route."
via The Wall Street Journal's blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/01/21/beijings-heavy-handed-response-to-shanghai-grief/
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