China Tv Host Suspended Over Insulting Mao

Beijing (AFP) - One of China's most famous television hosts has had his shows taken off air after allegedly insulting Communist China's founding father Mao Zedong, according to reports.State broadcaster CCTV said it was investigating Bi Fujian for having caused a "serious social impact".A video posted online showed Bi -- who has hosted CCTV's New Year Gala, the most watched television programme in the world -- calling Mao a "son of a bitch" and mocking the revolutionary leader while singing in Peking Opera style at a dinner.Bi's programmes will be taken off the air for four days, Internet news portal Tencent reported, citing CCTV staff.Earlier this week Nie Chenxi, the deputy chief of China's censorship authority, moved across to head CCTV, the first non-journalist to lead the channel in 30 years. In the video, Bi is seen parodying a song from "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy", one of the eight model operas allowed during the Cultural Revolution.Aside from directly insulting Mao, Bi punctuated lines from the song with "we've suffered enough", a reference to the harsh conditions ordinary people endured throughout Mao's rule, which ended with his death in 1976.Chinese social media were filled with comments both supporting and criticising Bi."He was only fired because he's a public figure, and because we don't have freedom of speech in this country," said one poster Thursday on China's Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo. "He must be punished, one must not insult the founding leader, that's the bottom line," said another.But authorities appeared to discourage further discussion of Bi's antics.