Chinese Communist Party Makes April Fools’ Day Illegal, Threatens Legal Action Against Online Pranksters

Apparently, the Chinese Communist Party can’t take a joke and won’t let you take one, either. The Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, Xinhua News, stated that April Fools’ Day is forbidden if you’re in China. No, this statement isn’t a joke. This is the real-life world of political internet control.

As the Associated Press reports, here’s part of the blandly posted Xinhua statement on Weibo, China’s popular microblogging service.

“The so-called Western April Fool’s Day does not conform to Chinese cultural traditions or socialist core values.”

Although the Chinese Communist Party seems to be discouraging pranks and jokes in celebration of April Fools’ in the name of keeping China free of Western ideas, the larger aim is about controlling how citizens think about the world around them. It’s about pushing forth an “us versus them” mentality in society.

But apparently, people in China are still celebrating April Fools’ Day. In Hong Kong, where the fight for freedom in the midst of Chinese Communist Party rule is intense, April Fools’ Day flourishes. Through the state news agency, the government attempted the ultimate buzzkill, reminding citizens of strict policies regarding information spread online.

Xinhua’s post is a throwback to 2013, the year in which the communist party officially threatened jail time for someone in China posting information that spreads widely but turns out to be false. It’s not always that the information is false but that it is critical of those in power. The government would like to make sure it doesn’t spread, thereby justifying legal punishment for the poster.

But if you are outside the reaches of hypersensitive government agencies with a penchant for information control, you can get the first crack at all the best internet April Fools’ jokes the web has to offer. It’s a pretty feisty lineup this year, with Google leading the way with multiple online pranks.

Originally, April Fools’ Day started when the Western calendar system switched to January 1 for the year’s beginning. The end of March used to be the start of the new year. That changed when the Gregorian Calendar was adopted, moving it to January 1, instead. Those who wouldn’t budge or didn’t get the memo, still taking the original designation as New Year’s Day, are the fools referred to by April Fools’ Day.

Get prank protected with April Fools’ Proof #Advil #AprilFoolsDay pic.twitter.com/9rWXYyvbSY

— Advil® (@AdvilRelief) April 1, 2016

These days, an April Fool is whoever can be made to fall for a prank on April 1. But the Chinese Communist Party is taking this day of humor as a Western evil. Fortunately, Chinese citizens hold more of a sense of humor than the government and have fired back on Xinhua’s statement, mocking it before Xinhua closed down commenting on the post.

The Associated Press reported on what the Chinese Communist Party wants to keep off the internet and out of people’s minds.

“Those include basic human rights and political concepts including freedom of speech and separation of powers, with professors, soldiers and rank-and-file party members all being told to keep their minds clean of such thoughts. The fact that communism is itself an imported Western political concept has not been openly discussed.”

It’s all a bit silly if you look at it. Those aren’t ideas you can hide from people forever, and the more you hide it from them, the more they seek after them, as people naturally want access to diverse information and ideas.

Happy April, fools. pic.twitter.com/gkCRrXle5Q

— Brian Burkheiser (@Bri_Prevail) April 1, 2016

As for what you can actually get you arrested, Reuters revisited the law.

“According to a judicial interpretation issued by China’s top court and prosecutor, people will be charged with defamation if online rumors they create are visited by 5,000 internet users or reposted more than 500 times.”

Even before such laws were officially implemented, dissidents in China, or those who expressed views independent of the official government line, have faced prosecution and jail time for things they posted online. The April Fools’ Day declaration is only a reminder of the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing restrictions on ideas.

[Photo by China Photos/Getty Images]