Mr. Shangkong | Xi makes The Economist cover again, but Beijing's censors are unimpressed
Beijing may have taken umbrage at the headline of The Economist’s May 4 issue, which reads: “Let’s party like it’s 1793”.
For the second time in just over six months, China’s president, Xi Jinping, is gracing the cover of The Economist, although Beijing appears unimpressed and unamused.
Xi is dressed in the imperial robe of Qianlong, one of the most influential and successful emperors in Chinese history, and Beijing’s response was as swift as it was predictable. All related online pictures and links to the latest issue of the British newspaper have been heavily censored, just hours after the publication of the Xi cover.
Why 1793?
This is a key date in modern Chinese history, and The Economist is quick to explain to those unversed in the history of the Middle Kingdom: “In 1793 a British envoy, Lord Macartney, arrived at the court of the Chinese emperor, hoping to open an embassy. He brought with him a selection of gifts from his newly industrialising nation.”
“The Qianlong emperor, whose country then accounted for about a third of global GDP, swatted him away,” The Economist recounts, noting that the emperor welcomed Britain’s “sincere humility and obedience” but China did not have “the slightest need for your country’s manufactures”.
