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  • Mr Sophistication posted an update 4 years, 9 months ago

    Roses are red
    Roses are blue
    It’s time for Poet’s Corner
    Yee-Haw!
    China Orders Billionaire to Lie Low After Poem Post Sparks Fury
    [ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-18/beijing-warns-meituan-founder-to-stay-low-key-after-poem-furor ]

    “China’s government summoned Meituan’s Wang Xing to a meeting recently and warned him to keep a low profile, after the founder of China’s third-largest tech corporation last month posted a controversial poem that convulsed markets and sparked a social media furor.

    Beijing officials called Wang in after the food delivery mogul posted a millennium-old poem regarded by many as implicit criticism of the government, according to people with knowledge of the matter. They warned him to refrain from courting the spotlight, at least temporarily, the people said, asking not to be identified as they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

    The Tang Dynasty poem — describing the burning of books under China’s first emperor — was widely seen as anti-establishment and triggered a $26 billion selloff in Meituan’s shares over two days.

    Officials refrained from taking more severe action against Wang because they didn’t want to convey the impression that every minor transgression could result in dire consequences, one of the people said. The incident transpired less than two months before the Chinese Communist Party is poised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding on July 1, a politically sensitive period in the country.”