Recently, a lawyer from mainland China released a video revealing that one of his followers was detained by the police in Hunan province for making a 12-word comment online about the dismissed county party secretary, and was punished for his words. The follower, surnamed Xiao, attempted legal action twice but failed. The Hunan High Court recently intervened to address his grievances, but the follower questioned the authorities for setting him up under the pretext of “extortion.”
On August 29, a lawyer named Che uploaded a video on social media, disclosing that one of his followers, surnamed Xiao from Xiangyin, Hunan, posted a 12-word comment online: “Are they still doing shoddy projects and using the same store signs?” Another user responded to this comment, saying, “Do you not know that many of his relatives work in advertising companies?” These comments were made in response to a video about the investigation of Li Zhenjiang, the secretary of the Xiangyin County Committee in Hunan. However, the Xiangyin County Public Security Bureau deemed this as “provocation and troublemaking,” leading to the administrative detention of Mr. Xiao for five days.
In the video, Lawyer Che mentioned, “Mr. Xiao is definitely dissatisfied and filed administrative lawsuits, but they were rejected in both the first and second instances. He applied for a retrial with the Hunan High Court on May 24 this year.”
Last week, Mr. Xiao privately messaged Lawyer Che, informing him that the High Court had notified him of mediation between him and the county public security bureau this week.
Lawyer Che stated, “Just yesterday, the staff from the High Court came to Xiangyin County, found Mr. Xiao, and facilitated mediation between him and the county public security bureau. The High Court’s attitude is mostly clear that his actions do not constitute provocation and troublemaking. However, in order to maintain overall stability, they still organized a dialogue between both parties. The staff inquired about Mr. Xiao’s demands, essentially asking how much compensation he sought.”
“There was a previous case where, after a petitioner received partial compensation, a relevant department subsequently prosecuted the petitioner for extortion. Therefore, in this mediation, Mr. Xiao has refrained from specifying the amount of compensation he wants,” he added.
According to the website of the Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, in January of this year, it was reported that Li Zhenjiang, the secretary of the Xiangyin County Committee, was under investigation, with the official announcement stating that he lacked sufficient strength in the areas of social governance and ideological risk prevention.
Before Li Zhenjiang fell from power, his subordinate, Zhang Miao, the executive deputy director of the Xiangyin County Committee, had already been investigated. After Li Zhenjiang’s investigation, Liu Zhizhong, the deputy county magistrate, and the director of the Public Security Bureau of Xiangyin County, were also investigated in June of this year.
It was noted that in July of last year, the police in Yueyang City issued a notice stating that in order to combat “online rumors,” the Cybersecurity Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security launched a 100-day special operation. Up to now, Yueyang City has handled 119 cases of “online rumors,” cleared 454 related pieces of information, closed 7 related accounts, and penalized 84 netizens.
Yueyang City police also released “10 typical cases,” including one revealing a campus violence incident, one bringing “negative impact” to a temple, and three cases involving “defamation” of the government and public security organs.