The Chinese Communist Party has officially amended the Criminal Procedure Law, and those who “infringe on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs and damage the public interest” will face up to three years in prison. Schematic diagram.
Recently, China announced the number of Chinese soldiers killed and wounded in last year’s Sino-Indian conflict, which led to questions from the public and resulted in the arrest of six people as a warning. The official has amended the Criminal Procedure Law, and those who “infringe on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs and damage the public interest” will face up to three years in prison. The news is thought-provoking.
At the end of December last year, China’s National People’s Congress voted to amend the Criminal Law (Eleventh) to create a new crime called “insulting and defaming heroes and martyrs. Article 35 of the Amendment to the Criminal Law (XI) states: “After Article 299 of the Criminal Law, an article shall be added as one of Article 299: If a person insults, slanders or otherwise infringes upon the reputation or honor of a heroic martyr and damages the public interest, and the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, detention, control or deprivation of political rights. ” The above law will take effect on March 1, 2021.
In the face of the increasing number of “defamation of heroes and martyrs” cases in recent years, the authorities are mostly prosecuted for “provocation and nuisance”, but Beijing lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan pointed out in an interview with Radio Free Asia on 23, defamation or insult to others’ reputation, generally belongs to private (civil) cases, not public prosecution. However, Beijing lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan pointed out in an interview with Radio Free Asia on 23rd that slandering or insulting others’ reputation is generally a private (civil) case, not a public case, and public power should not intervene.
China’s Communist Party has been raising questions about the image of the military and strictly controlling netizens
After clashes between India and China erupted at the border last year, it was not until recently that the Chinese Communist Party officially confirmed the number of dead and wounded, but civilians raised questions, with “Hot Pen Little Ball,” a microblogger with 2.54 million followers, the first to be arrested by police. Subsequently, police in Beijing, Sichuan, Guangdong, Nanjing and Fujian arrested six people in quick succession and charged them with “insulting and slandering the martyrs” on the Internet, so they are facing prosecution. Another man from Chongqing, who lives abroad, was listed as a “fugitive”.
Liu Xiaoyuan, who has represented defense lawyers in such cases, pointed out that all of the netizens arrested are suspected of what officials call “provocation and nuisance crimes,” but the charges cover a wide range. “Generally, it has to cause serious consequences such as suicide or mental breakdown of the person concerned, or he (the defamed person) himself is no longer alive, etc. What we are seeing now is that once a post is made, it is also possible to be arrested.”
According to Beijing police, at 21:00 on the evening of Feb. 20, netizen Chen Mouqiang was arrested on suspicion of “provoking and provoking trouble” after posting several “defamatory and insulting remarks about dead soldiers” in a WeChat group. On the same day, Sichuan netizen Yang Moumou was administratively detained for 7 days for posting a comment in the comment section of Sina Weibo that “denigrated and insulted a dead soldier”. The same day, Sichuan netizen Yang Moumou, who published a comment in the comment section of Sina Weibo, was administratively detained for 7 days. The first Time I saw this, I was sentenced to 15 days of administrative detention.
In this regard, Beijing lawyer Mo Shaoping pointed out that after the entry into force of the amendment to the Criminal Law, the alleged defamers will bear multi-level legal responsibility: “First, they will bear civil liability, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code, second, they may have to bear administrative responsibility, according to the provisions of the Public Security Management Punishment Law, you are subject to administrative detention, the third involves the violation of criminal law, that is, according to the amendment to the Criminal Law 11, may constitute a criminal offense against the honor of martyrs.”
New provisions in China’s criminal law are actually intended to curb speech
Jiangxi lawmaker Chen Gang also said he had noticed that many Chinese netizens had been arrested in the past few days for their comments, and that the new criminal law provisions cover a wider range of people, “and maybe more people will be arrested for defaming the so-called ‘heroes and martyrs’. It is also a way of clamping down, called clamping down on speech according to the law. It seems to have a legal basis, but in fact, the public’s discussion of the so-called martyrs is also part of the freedom of speech.”
On February 19, when the official Chinese media first reported that four people had been killed and one injured after clashes between India and China erupted at the border last year, the former Shanghai-based correspondent for the Economic Observer and microblogger with 2.54 million followers, “Hot Pen Small Ball,” posted an article questioning the Chinese military’s role in the conflict between India and China, which resulted in a complaint on February 20 that the Chinese military had killed and injured more soldiers. He was criminally detained by authorities on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble. He is reportedly facing a three-year prison sentence.
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