Popular Chinese TV celebrity Bi Fujian will face “severe punishment” after making “disparaging” comments about Communist Party founder Mao Zedong, state media reported.
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His comments were filmed and posted online in April, causing a national debate, and he was suspended from his position shortly afterwards.
He was previously stripped of his role as ambassador for education.
The controversial video showed Bi – best known for hosting the talent show “Star Boulevard” – singing a song from “Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy“, one of the eight revolutionary operas produced during the Cultural Revolution.
During Mao’s tenure, China experienced a transformation.
In another comment, he said: “The Communist Party, Chairman Mao – Ugh, let’s not talk about this son of a bitch any longer, he’s caused us so much suffering”.
While the ruling Communist Party has acknowledged Mao made mistakes, there has yet to be an official accounting for the chaos of the Cultural Revolution or the millions of deaths from starvation during the 1958-61 Great Leap Forward. Bi said in reference to Mao in the 76-second video.
The China Self-discipline Inspection Every day, a newspaper beneath the social gathering’s anti-graft watchdog, stated Sunday that self-discipline inspectors on the broadcasting watchdog had discovered that Bi had violated “political self-discipline” in harming Mao’s picture.
According to the report, the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television ordered CCTV to deal with the matter “severely” and to educate people within the broadcasting system.
SAPPRFT is also demanding that CCTV imposes a severe punishment on Bi, who has already been suspended by the television network. It ordered CCTV to “seriously handle” the case. To the laughter of guests at a dinner, Bi adds his own commentary in a speaking voice between lines. I hereby offer to the public my deepest regrets. “As a public figure, I have learned my lesson and will observe self-discipline”, he said in a Weibo posting.
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Bi Fujian was a expertise present host on China Central Tv when in feedback interspersed in a track.
