Belarusian President Visits China, 20-Year-Old Incident of Insulting Mao Resurfaces

Left: Mao Zedong, Right: Lin Biao (Dajiyuan composite)

[People News] As the Belarusian President visits China, public attention is primarily on Xi Jinping, who has recently returned after a two-week absence. Du Wen, the executive director of the legal advisory office of the Mongolian Autonomous Region government in exile, revealed on his social media channel that the 2015 incident involving CCTV host Bi Fujian insulting Mao Zedong during a dinner actually has ties to Belarus. However, the Chinese Communist Party, in an effort to protect its image, allowed only Bi Fujian to take full responsibility for the incident.

In 2015, a video surfaced showing CCTV host Bi Fujian insulting Mao Zedong during a dinner, which caused a significant uproar both domestically and internationally. Following the incident, Bi Fujian was suspended from his program and subsequently forced to resign.

Du Wen explained that the dinner attended by Bi Fujian was not just an ordinary private gathering. The background of the event is quite intriguing. While it appeared to be an extension of a cultural exchange activity, it actually led back to the Belarusian Embassy in China.

According to Du Wen, the dinner was preceded by a cultural exchange reception hosted by the Belarusian Embassy in China in early April 2015 in Beijing. Attendees included Igor Babak, vice president of the Belarusian Cultural Alliance, representatives from Belarusian State University, and assistants from CCTV's foreign affairs department. It is reported that the dinner, venue, and guest invitations were all organised and coordinated by the official representatives of the Belarusian Cultural Alliance in China. After the reception, the group moved to the Meiquan Palace Hotel in Haidian District, Beijing, for dinner and singing.

At that time, why did CCTV host Bi Fujian sing publicly after a cultural event in Belarus, joking about Mao Zedong in his performance, which was fortuitously recorded and quickly leaked?

There is a theory suggesting that the video might have been an accidental leak captured during a cultural event in Belarus. It remains unclear whether someone deliberately set up this situation under the pretext of cultural exchange using Belarus as a platform. Interestingly, following this incident, the Ukrainian Embassy in China quickly issued a statement to dissociate itself from the matter. In contrast, the Belarusian Embassy in China has remained silent, offering no comments. This presence without a clear stance has led to a degree of speculation from the public. Ironically, amidst the backdrop of warming relations between China and Belarus at that time, the Chinese Communist Party opted for silence, allowing the background of the foreign guests to become ambiguous and placing all the blame solely on Bi Fujian. Other participants were not mentioned, and the platform did not seek accountability, as if the chief director was the only one at fault, while no one inquired about who wrote the script.

Du Wen analysed that if this political incident involving the insult to Mao during the dinner was purely coincidental, it would indeed be too coincidental. The involvement of Belarusian cultural institutions in the incident, along with the subsequent handling entirely managed by the Chinese Communist political system, indicates that even if it was merely an intermediary location, an embassy or its affiliated organisations could serve as a hidden battleground for such discourse struggles.

On April 6, 2015, a user on Sina Weibo uploaded a video featuring Bi Fujian singing a segment from "We Are the Sons and Daughters of the Workers and Peasants" from the opera "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy." In the video, Bi Fujian sings a line and then comments, stating, "Don't mention that old XX (a vulgar term in Jiao-Liao dialect), it has caused us great suffering," and "Did the landlord provoke you?" These remarks, interpreted as criticisms of Mao Zedong, ignited intense discussions both in China and abroad [20].

Following this, CCTV released a statement suspending all programs hosted by Bi Fujian. Later reports from mainland media indicated that he had been suspended from his position and was currently under investigation.