“The Cost of Comedy in China: Li Haoshi Investigated for Making Joke about Xi Jinping”

BEIJING – “The smiles of the people are the nightmares of dictators”, wrote the last great Chinese dissident, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. In fact, having made the people smile cost the comedian very dearly Li Haoshi. Saturday night, during a stand-up comedy show here at BeijingLi dared to make a joke about the army and the slogan used by the leader Xi Jinping in person. Result: an investigation has started against the comedian for “…