According to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday, Chinese authorities have outlawed sales of the new GN’R release, citing the title of the album, “Chinese Democracy,” as the principal reason. The title, thought up by Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose because he “liked the sound of it,” violates rules established by China’s Ministry of Culture that prohibit the word “democracy” to be used in the title of any music, book or film within mainland China. One can only assume that if the word “Chinese” precedes “Democracy” in a title, Chinese censors would become even more frightened.
The Global Times, a newspaper run by China’s Communist Party, published an article Monday with the headline “American band releases album venomously attacking China,” that labels the album part of a Western plot to “grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn” and that the album “turns its spear point on China.” Other than the story in the state newspaper, no Ministry of Culture spokesman has commented on the album.
On the album’s title track, Axl Rose, a frequent visitor to China, accuses the Chinese government of scapegoating the Falun Gong, the religious sect perpetually at odds with Beijing. “Blame it on the Falun Gong/They’ve seen the end and you can’t hold on now,” Axl sings in “Chinese Democracy,” a song said to have been written about religious persecution in China. Axl later sings in the song as if speaking directly to the Chinese authorities, “You think you got it all locked up inside/And if you beat them all up they’ll die/Then you’ll walk them home for the cells/Then now you’ll dig for your road back to hell.” To use the Chinese government’s favorite buzzword, Axl’s words are certainly “sensitive.”
This is ANOTHER…….. perfect example of how when the CCP feels that people are pressuring it for rights, the CCP (unable to give rights because it is a big freakin’ lose case) presents the critic as antiChina and that ensures that the Chinese people feel they have been insulted and take the side of the CCP, when in reality, this band has criticized the party and definitely not China.
No More Chinese Communist Party 