The "Simpsons" have been broadcast in China for more than 20 years.

DLNews Entertainment:

When it comes to criticism of the system, China's dictatorship doesn't take a joke!

The "Simpsons" producers are also feeling the pinch. In Hong Kong, "Disney Plus" has already deleted another animated series episode from its media library. Whether this was done out of anticipatory obedience or fear of China's censors is unclear. The streaming service provider has not yet commented.

Because: In the episode "One Angry Lisa" from the 34th season, there is a joke about labor camps, in it, Marge takes a digital bike tour of the Great Wall of China with her fitness trainer Jesse.

On the world-famous protective structure, in the construction of which countless forced laborers died, Jesse says, "Look at the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines and forced labor camps where kids make smartphones."

Not a particularly original joke, but dangerous enough for the regime's censors. That's because dictator Xi Jinping, 69, holds more than 1.5 million Uighurs (a Muslim minority) in re-education camps in Xinjiang province. They are tortured, raped, sterilized, and forced to slave by the government. The United Nations, therefore, accuses China of crimes against humanity.

The Simpsons" episode about the massacre at Tiananmen Square was deleted.

Numerous companies from abroad submit to Chinese censorship regulations in order to do business in the Middle Kingdom. It's also not the first time "Disney Plus" has thrown a "Simpsons" episode off its platform to avoid antagonizing the regime.

In November 2021, "Disney" in Hong Kong will remove the episode "The Smiling Buddha" from its program. First broadcast in 2005, the episode is full of satirical broadsides against the regime. Foremost among them is an allusion to the Tiananmen Square massacre of the summer of 1989.