Because of strict censorship laws a new kind of slang has developed in China, called 'Reci' which means 'hot words'. China always had a 'Great Firewall' but since Xi Jinping became president censorship has become much more sinister. "Before Xi Jinping we feared only that they would delete our posts. In the worst situation, they would delete (your account). But since Xi Jinping came to power this changed. They began to arrest people," said Qiao Mu, an academic. If the offending person is living abroad the police start harassing his family living in China. The law has been left deliberately vague to instill fear into people. "To be safe, a person must pull back in every respect, and moreover must become his or her own policeman," wrote P Link. It is not a surprise that Animal Farm by George Orwell is banned in China, but the children's cartoon Winnie the Pooh and the letter 'N' are also banned. So, people have started to combine words to create new meanings. Thus, 'antizen' combines 'ant' and 'citizen' to show helplessness. 'Innernet' denotes inner controls on the internet. 'Freedamn' mocks the lack of freedom, 'harmany' is harmful to many and 'smilence' shows the suffering in silence. Those who invent such words are called 'niubi' in admiration. Recently an essay by Prof Xu Zhangrun at Tsinghua University in Beijing criticised the Communist Party for ending the two term limit for Xi Jinping and warned of "The possibility of economic downturn intensifying". Would he dare to write such things openly if not assured of Xi Jinping's ouster? "Xi's name seemed to have disappeared for a while from the cover of People's Daily, replaced with articles about his deputy Li Keqiang," but "For now, Xi remains in full control of the government and party," wrote Lily Kuo. Party officials are blaming Xi Jinping's aide Wang Huning for "mishandling the propaganda and hyping up China too much". "In the trade war, the line of thinking in the propaganda has been that Trump is crazy," said an official. "In fact, what he is scared of is us getting strong." Trump is not the only one. Ask Japan, the Philippines or Vietnam. Naturally, China's state media resorted to abuse, as it usually does, saying that Trump "was starring in his own 'street-fighter style deceitful drama of extortion and intimidation'". That is very polite. It refrained from calling him "eunuchs" and "paper tiger". Chinese leaders think that they have a right to to behave with "Chinese characteristics", but other countries, such as the US, are unwilling to accept blatant cheating in trade. Even the Belt and Road Initiative may cause problems if other nations are forced to default on their loans. Xi Jinping may yet have to join his old friend Bo Xilai. That would be great for a movie.
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