The Mao Taboo: Criticise the chinese communist leader Mao Zedong and risk jail term.

I found this report on the economist and I wondered if this could apply to the modern day Nigeria. Read for yourself.

WHEN a video of Bi Fujian calling Mao Zedong “a son of a bitch” at a private dinner party was posted online earlier this month, it went viral. The popular-television host was suspended from his job and the clip taken down. The authorities reportedly asked local media to cool discussion of the episode, but online chatter continues unabated.

The gaffe has embarrassed the Communist Party because Mr Bi is one of the best-known faces of China Central Television, the state broadcaster. As well as glitzy talent shows, he presents Chinese television’s most-watched event, the tightly scripted Spring Festival gala. The video, apparently filmed secretly, shows him singing his own mocking lyrics to a Mao-era opera while his guests laugh. The snitch has not been unmasked, while several prominent figures have been quick to say that they were not present. Mr Bi has apologised publicly and promised to “exercise strict self-discipline”.

But Mr Bi’s wisecracks went further, by challenging a great taboo. In 1981, five years after Mao died, Deng Xiaoping issued his verdict: the late leader, responsible for ten of millions of deaths through political violence and mass famine, had been “70% right and 30% wrong”. Despite occasional calls for a reappraisal, this assessment prevails. Indeed the current president, Xi Jinping, emphasises the party’s Maoist origins and has a penchant for Mao-style sloganeering.Chinese media present Mr Bi’s comments as just one example of celebrity brashness. On April 8th Xinhua, a state news agency, attacked Wang Sicong, the son of China’s wealthiest person, for “vulgar” remarks on his microblog (mostly about dogs and large-breasted women). Global Times, a Beijing newspaper, recently emphasised that public figures are never beyond scrutiny.

Mao is still portrayed as the nation’s father. His image is everywhere. Every banknote bears his face, and his portrait hangs at the entrance to the Forbidden City. Though Mr Xi has crafted a narrative about the hardships he and others suffered during the Cultural Revolution, criticising Mao himself remains blasphemous. Once people start to laugh at the emperor, all authority is in doubt.