Mocking Costs Oliver: Weibo Blocks John Oliver. For Slamming The Human Rights Record Of China And Mocking It's President

SHANGHAI: China's Twitter alike microblogging service known as Weibo has deleted and blocked posts regarding the British comedian John Oliver. As he slammed the country's human rights record and mocked President Xi Jinping on his show, Last Thursday.

In a 20-minute telecast which was aired on HBO last Sunday, Oliver criticised China's moves to end the presidential term limits and enshrine "Xi Jinping Thought" in its constitution, saying Xi's consolidation of power was driven by a "leadership cult".

Oliver also mocked China's "Belt and Road" initiative, its ongoing breakdown on corruption, and moves to censoring the online images of cartoon bear Winnie the Pooh, said to resemble Xi.

Attempts to post Oliver's English name or the name of his show prompted error messages about "information that violated related laws and regulations". The Chinese translation of his name does not appear to have been censored. "For my whole life, I won't be able to see John Oliver enter China's market after this episode," one Weibo user wrote on Thursday, using a Chinese translation of Oliver's name.

On Thursday, June 12 was the most recent date on Weibo posts referring to John Oliver in English. Last year, Weibo removed a Chinese-language fanpage of John Oliver's show after the satirist interviewed 

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, according to a previous moderator of the fanpage. The fanpage had a following of around 3,000 users at the time, said the moderator, who declined to be identified.

"John Oliver must have seen this coming, but I don't think it really matters. China does not generate any revenue for HBO," said a fan who used to help translate content for the show into Chinese. He, too, sought anonymity.