Putin Hits on China's First Lady, Censors Go Wild
Russia’s Don Juan-in-chief just got a little too friendly with Xi Jinping's wife.

At an APEC event held on the evening of Nov. 10 at the Water Cube, the resplendent aquatic stadium constructed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Putin was seated next to Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan, who in turn sat next to her husband, Chinese President Xi Jinping.

That's a seating arrangement Xi may now regret.

Obviously, everyone watching the CCTV broadcast caught this very strange moment of attempted chivalry, and it quickly began making the media rounds. And just as quickly, censors made it disappear:

China's tightly controlled state media carefully protects the reputation of its top government leaders, and the names of China's top leaders are frequently some of the most heavily censored terms on Chinese social media. In addition, the sweeping anti-corruption campaign Xi himself directs specifically targets infidelity as both a sign and a symptom of graft. And given China's growing economic and military ties with Russia, even the hint of less than squeaky-clean behavior involving Russia's president and China's First Lady is certainly strictly verboten.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...ensors_go_wild