Website punished for tasteless parody of national martyrs

China's cultural affairs watchdog announced on Thursday that it had punished an online video channel for violating China's law against maligning revolutionary martyrs.

Rage Comic, an online cartoon series turned video channel, uploaded a one-minute clip on Toutiao, a Beijing-based streaming media provider, on May 8.

In the clip, the host made fun of Dong Cunrui, a PLA soldier during the War of Liberation (1946-49) who blew himself up in order to guard an approach to a bridge and destroy a Kuomintang bunker. Dong is hailed as a war hero in today's China, but the host parodied the story by replacing bunker with "burger" - which rhymes in Chinese - and turning Dong into a starving diner.