Chinese TV host 'crossed line' with Mao Zedong jibe: state newspaper

The top graft-buster's mouthpiece has slammed popular television host Bi Fujian for "crossing the bottom line" as a Communist Party member by telling jokes critical of late leader Mao Zedong .

"A party member should never put his words and deeds above party disciplines," read the signed opinion piece published yesterday in the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection's China Discipline Inspection Newspaper.

The article lambasted Bi for violating the rule that required party members to remain loyal to the party.

"Bi entertained himself and a small circle [of friends] by deriding a party leader and the military. [His act] has damaged the party's image. It seems he enjoyed it and is not at all ashamed," the article read.

Bi's act smacked of "liberalism and individualism" - political strains that President Xi Jinping had said in a speech last year that the party must weed out, the article added.

The video leaked on Monday showed Bi singing Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, an opera produced during the Cultural Revolution, at a private banquet with friends, where he made a satirical comment, including a brief line saying Mao had given the people a tough time.