On Friday morning Li’s death was the top trending topic on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform. Many commenters expressed shock and grief but comments on posts – which were mostly limited to news and government accounts – were restricted or controlled, with only a selection visible.
Earlier in the day there had been some posts of a song titled “Unfortunately not you” by Fish Leong, which netizens have taken to sharing when a world leader dies, in an apparent reference to Xi, who cannot be openly criticised safely.
