Editor’s note for Monday, May 10, 2021

My thoughts today:

Things aren’t getting any better for those who like to speak their minds in China:

Wáng Xìng 王兴, founder of a string of internet companies including food delivery giant Meituan, “sparked a social media frenzy and a sell-off of its stock, after posting a millennium-old Chinese poem seen as an unsubtle jab at the government,” reports the South China Morning Post：

The 42-year-old internet entrepreneur, whose company is under investigation for possible breaches of China’s antitrust laws, posted a poem on Sunday that was written during the late Tang dynasty about the burning of books by China’s first emperor Qín Shǐhuáng 秦始皇. The poem is usually interpreted as an anti-establishment clarion call.

Wang made his deleted poem post on Fanfou, a Twitter clone he founded more than a decade ago which was shut down during a government clampdown on social media in 2009. When Fanfou reopened in 2010, it never returned to popularity, but Wang has continued to post there as “the billionaire mayor of China’s glorious digital ghost town.”

The poem and stock sell off come as the government continues its crackdown on big tech companies, with Meituan very much in its sights.

Also in the news, Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 replied to a letter from the editors of The Journal of Chinese Humanities (文史哲) in a missive promoted by state media (in English, Chinese) as emphasizing the promotion of Chinese culture and civilization. But, says Bill Bishop in today’s Sinocism newsletter: “Those with a deeper understanding of CCP history may see more signals about the intensifying anti-Americanism in Xi’s New Era.”

Our word of the day is On the Book-Burning Pit (焚书坑 fén shū kēng), a poem by Zhāng Jié 章碣.

Our annual Women’s Conference happens May 12 and 13. ACCESS Members can receive free entry on May 12 or 50% off entry on May 13 by using the promo code WC21ACCESS.

One of our featured speakers is Wei Sun Christianson, Managing Director of Asia Pacific and CEO of China for Morgan Stanley: Read a Q&A with her here.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief