BEIJING (AP) – Chinese authorities ordered a state broadcaster to punish a popular TV celebrity for insulting Communist Party founder Mao Zedong at a private dinner, state media reported.
Bi Fujian was a talent show host on China Central Television when a video circulated in April showing him mocking Mao in comments interspersed in a song. He publicly apologized and was suspended.
The China Discipline Inspection Daily, a newspaper under the party’s anti-graft watchdog, said Sunday that discipline inspectors at the broadcasting watchdog had found that Bi had violated “political discipline” in harming Mao’s image.
The report said the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television had ordered CCTV to deal with the matter “severely” and to educate people within the broadcasting system.
CCTV did not immediately comment. Calls to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television rang unanswered Monday.