It was a short-lived Weibo experience for Taiwan?s former premier Frank Hsieh.?
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On Wednesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after he opened an account on China?s wildly popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, it was shut down.?
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Despite being on Weibo for less than a day, Hsieh managed to amass more than 60,000 followers. Hsieh was the former leader of Taiwan?s opposition Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP. It has been strongly opposed to attempts by China?s communist authorities to assert sovereignty over Taiwan.
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[Mr. Zhang, Xinjing-based Netizen]:
?A lot of netizens probably wanted to find out what he?s saying on Weibo. Actually a lot Mainland netizens support the DPP?s ideals; they usually pay more attention human rights"
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It?s unclear why Hsieh?s account was shut down. But it could have to do with this post. Hsieh said on Wednesday ?freedom of speech doesn?t depend on whether you have the freedom to criticize those in power. But, rather, whether you lose your freedom after you do so.?
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Later that day, his account was closed.
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Frank Hsieh wasn?t the only high profile person to have his Weibo account shut down recently.
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Brad Pitt, who has already been banned from visiting China because of his role in the movie 7 Years in Tibet, also had his Weibo account disappear, according to Hollywood Reporter.
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Li Kaifu, the former head of Google?s China division had his account disabled for three days earlier this week. Li has more than 50 million followers, and has been vocally critical of the Chinese regime?s Internet censorship. His account was reactivated again on Wednesday.?
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The account closures comes just days after Chinese leader Xi Jinping reportedly told fellow Communist Party members they should be able to ?put up with sharp criticism?.
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