The "South Park"-style video by animator Wang Bo, in which persecuted rabbits overthrow the ruling tigers, went viral on video-sharing sites in recent days thanks to its gruesome depiction of a number of recent scandals.

It was unavailable on websites in China Thursday, apparently deleted by skittish government censors.

Wang's cartoon begins with baby rabbits who die horribly from drinking "Sanlu" milk. Sanlu is the now-defunct Chinese dairy giant that was at the centre of a huge scandal in 2008 over tainted milk.

The milk was blamed for killing six infants and making another 300,000 ill.

In the video, rabbit parents are then savagely beaten by tiger thugs when they complain, or are cruelly run over by cars and killed -- in a clear reference to two notorious recent cases.

In one, the son of a police official in northern China stood trial this week accused of striking and killing a pedestrian while driving drunk. He reportedly tried to escape arrest by invoking his father's name.

In another, a village chief was last month crushed by a truck. Villagers allege he was killed by local officials to silence his complaints about a land seizure by authorities.

The bunnies in the video are a reference to the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, which begins on February 3, while 2010 was the Year of the Tiger.

After an orgy of violence as the bunnies rise up, the video ends with a character saying: "It will really be an interesting year."

China operates a huge system of online censorship that deletes content considered a threat to the primacy of the ruling Communist Party.

But the video remains available abroad on YouTube -- which is blocked in China -- at www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnw5BvxSDmM&feature=player_embedded.

Fearful of social unrest China's leaders are scrambling to contain public anger over a range of hot-button issues including official abuses and rising costs of food and housing.

This week, Premier Wen Jiabao paid an unprecedented visit to an office in Beijing where members of the public can petition the government over their grievances.

Wen pledged the government would go all-out to address public concerns, but Human Rights Watch dismissed his appearance as a political charade.

China annually sees tens of thousands of sometimes violent protests by ordinary citizens, often related to illegal land seizures, evictions and home demolitions by officials and businesses seeking to redevelop land.

A scene in the online video depicts tigers knocking over rabbits' homes with bulldozers.

earlier related report
Tiananmen duo denounce exclusion from Hong Kong
Taipei (AFP) Jan 27, 2011 - Two former leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen protests who were refused entry into Hong Kong this week said Thursday their exclusion exposed Beijing's strengthening grip on the autonomous territory.

Wang Dan and Wu'er Kaixi, who live in exile in Taiwan, have been refused entry to the former British colony, where they planned to attend a memorial service for democracy icon Szeto Wah this weekend.

"The Beijing authorities should provide an explanation as to why they did this, which is a humiliation to the deceased (Szeto Wah) and to Hong Kong's taxpayers," Wu'er told reporters in Taiwan.

The two said their exclusion from Hong Kong showed Bejing had tightened its grip on the officially autonomous territory, and called on Taipei to include human rights and democracy in its renewed dialogue with the mainland.

The incident also showed that "one country, two systems" -- the slogan for the arrangement whereby Beijing governs Hong Kong and the former Portuguese colony of Macau -- was dead and should never be applied to Taiwan, they said.

Beijing regards Taiwan as its territory and has proposed a similar "one country, two systems" arrangement -- an offer flatly rejected by Taipei.

As Taipei's ties with Beijing improve under the China-friendly Kuomintang government, "Taiwan should place human rights and democracy on its agenda while holing trade talks, and political talks," Wang said.

Wu'er said "Taiwan should have underscored human rights and democracy. This is the card Taiwan should have played in talks with China.

"But instead, it seems that all the politicians at the Kuomintang party have been trying to do is something to please Beijing."

Szeto Wah died of cancer at the age of 79 earlier this month, and his memorial service in Hong Kong is expected to draw thousands of mourners.

The one-time Hong Kong legislator helped many dissidents flee China after the bloody crackdown on protests around Tiananmen Square, which saw hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed.

Taiwan has governed itself for more than six decades, since the Kuomintang fled there in 1949 at the end of their civil war against the Communists.

Ties between Taipei and Beijing have improved markedly since the Kuomintang's Ma Ying-jeou came to power in 2008 on promises of beefing up trade and allowing more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan.

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