"Extremely Weird" Drop in Censorship May Reflect China's Political Struggle

Over the past few days, a number of "sensitive" search teams have been unblocked on the Chinese Internet. It may be a reflection of power struggles at the upper echelon of the Chinese Communist Party.

Matthew Robertson writes for The Epoch Times:

"In the latest bout of oddness to come over the Chinese Internet's notoriously strict censorship, searches for terms related to live organ harvesting have recently been unblocked on several major Internet portals. Specifically, the terms "live harvest," "bloody harvest" and "Wang Lijun live harvest" were all recently permitted searches on Sina Weibo, the most popular microblogging platform, and Baidu, the most popular search engine."

In the above interview with Robertson, he says the opening up of certain prohibited search terms is "extremely weird"—that is, unexpected under the current, tightly controlled censorship in China.

He believes it may be a deliberate political move that reflects the power struggle between China's former leader, Jiang Zemin, and the current leadership, including Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao.

Jiang Zemin and his faction began to persecute adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual practice in 1999. Evidence suggests that since then, China's state-run hospitals have harvested organs from living practitioners. In Chinese, this term is "Live Harvest."

The persecution of Falun Gong has continued under the current leadership of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. How to handle the persecution, and who should be held accountable in the future, are likely key issues ahead of the Communist Party leadership transition slated to happen later this year.