On Dec. 19, not long after news of Kim Jong Il's death went public, the Chinese Communist Party issued a note of condolence reminding the North Korean people that he was "a close friend of the Chinese people."
It’s an innocuous phrase, the sort of thing that the party says about its allies all the time. But unlike past expressions of sympathy and friendship, this one has found little to no support among China’s microblogging masses. As of Dec. 21, they have tweeted 8 million comments related to the Dear Leader on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging platform, and nearly all of them are scathingly negative. Indeed, rather than join party leaders in literally bowing down to Kim Jong Il, China’s microbloggers seem far more intent on mocking him and his impoverished country.
Read Full Article »