Slandering blogger jailed for 8 months
Print Edition
China has jailed a popular blogger for defaming martyrs after he suggested the death toll in the China-India border clash last year was higher than the official count of four.
Qiu Ziming, known as “Labixiaoqiu” on China’s Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo, was sentenced to eight months in prison, the court in the eastern city of Nanjing announced yesterday.
He was also ordered to make a public apology through major websites and national media outlets within 10 days after the verdict takes effect.
He is the first person to be jailed under a new provision of China’s criminal law that bans the “defamation of martyrs and heroes.”
Chinese military in February said four soldiers were killed in a skirmish with Indian troops in the Galwan Valley last June.
It was the worst border conflict between China and India in decades. The dead were posthumously honored as “border-defending heroes.”
Criminal offense
In social media posts, Qiu had suggested that the actual death toll might have been higher than the official count. He also said that a commanding officer survived “because he was the highest-ranking officer there.”
The court said the two micro blogs posted by Qiu in February distorted the heroic deeds of officers and soldiers guarding the border of China and derogated their heroic spirit, which triggered public outrage and brought great negative effects to society.
Qiu had “infringed on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs ... and confessed to his crimes,” the court said.
The 38-year-old was detained in February and Weibo banned his social media handle with over 2.5 million followers.
China passed a law in 2018 that made a civil offense of “defamation of martyrs and heroes,” including war-time heroes and modern-day figures such as fallen firefighters and soldiers.
It was made a criminal offense in February.
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