MCLC: outrage over boy's arrest

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: outrage over boy's arrest
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (9/23/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/world/asia/crackdown-on-dissent-in-china-
meets-online-backlash-after-boys-arrest.html

China’s Crackdown Prompts Outrage Over Boy’s Arrest
By ANDREW JACOBS

BEIJING — In their widening campaign against online “rumormongers” and
other putative purveyors of social disorder, Chinese authorities have
netted influential rights activists, freelance anticorruption sleuths and
even a billionaire entrepreneur who championed the rights of poor
migrants. Many of those detained in recent weeks remain in police custody.

But the enforcers of Internet propriety, it seems, were not prepared for
the online outrage stirred up by the arrest last week of a 16-year-old boy
who had publicly questioned investigators over the mysterious death of a
karaoke club manager in China’s northwest Gansu Province.

On Monday, the police in Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County apparently
bowed to public pressure and released Yang Zhong, a middle school student
who was among the first people to be charged under new regulations that
criminalize the spreading of online rumors with up to three years in jail.
The authorities contend the boy had simply confessed to his crimes and
served his punishment. Hours after his release, he posted online a
photograph of himself flashing a victory sign
<http://news.sina.com.cn/zl/zatan/2013-09-23/1007400.shtml>. His shirt
read, “Make the Change.”

Rights defenders and free-speech advocates have embraced his release as a
small but significant victory against what many here see as a draconian
campaign against dissent that has ensnared dozens of people over the past
two months. Those arrested include Xu Zhiyong, a prominent lawyer who had
called on officials to publicly disclose their financial assets, and Xue
Manzi, a Chinese-American investor who often railed against injustice to
his 12 million microblog followers.

Mr. Yang’s arrest last Tuesday drew sympathetic coverage in the news
media, and more than 10,000 people posted supportive messages, although
many were promptly deleted. Lawyers from Beijing offered to defend him.

“With the arrest of this kid, I think the public saw this rumor campaign
for what it really is: a devious attempt to crush normal online
expression,” said Zhou Ze, a lawyer in Beijing who sought to rally public
support for Mr. Yang’s case through his own account on Sina Weibo, China’s
most popular microblog service.

A wiry boy with a fondness for Apple smartphones, online games and the
occasional furtive cigarette, Mr. Yang ran into trouble two weeks ago when
he stepped into a local controversy involving the death of a man whose
body was found in front of the Jewel Time International Karaoke club. The
police ruled the death a suicide, but relatives claimed the man had been
beaten up before being tossed from an upper floor of the building. The
youth, who spoke to some of the victim’s relatives, questioned the
official version of events and then posted a message noting that the club
was owned by a local judicial official. “You don’t want the world to know
what happened?” he wrote. “What are you afraid of? I am not afraid of you.
I took pictures, arrest me. I dare you.”

Last Tuesday, the police did just that, grabbing him from school and later
charging him with “disrupting social disorder” because the posts, they
said, inspired protesters to block a local street, snarling traffic. The
police also claimed he had stolen a motorbike when he was 15, although
they say he escaped punishment because of his age. His father has said the
allegations are untrue.

Wang Shihua, one of the lawyers who volunteered to represent Mr. Yang,
said his detention was unlawful because his comments were not knowingly
fabricated. “It’s all right to crack down on rumors, but if such
initiatives are expanded without limits or regard to principle, they
become unconstitutional,” he said Monday.

Many analysts say the current offensive against online rumors is the
latest fusillade in the Communist Party’s battle against liberal ideas
like democracy and human rights, and those it fears could shake its hold
on power. Unlike previous attempts to rein in China’s freewheeling
microblogs, now estimated to include 500 million registered users,
officials have been going after relatively moderate rights advocates as
well as some of the most popular voices on Weibo. “We’ve seen an
across-the-board tightening,” said David Bandurski, a researcher at the
China Media Project in Hong Kong.

If the authorities in Zhangjiachuan thought the arrest of young Mr. Yang
would chill outside scrutiny, they have been sorely disappointed. In
recent days, some of China’s most intrepid journalists have been taking a
closer look at what ranks as one of the country’s poorest counties.
Bloggers have publicized lavish spending on government buildings,
including nearly $3 million spent on the county’s administrative
headquarters, and the extravagant tastes of local civil servants, one of
whom was photographed wearing the kind of luxury watch that has felled
other officials.

Mr. Yang, who works in his family’s noodle shop, seems to have been
emboldened by his ordeal. Soon after his release, he posted comments
thanking his supporters. Later in the day, he was to participate in a live
online interview with Sina Weibo members. But the exchange mysteriously
ended just moments later, and soon afterward, the boy’s microblog account
disappeared, too.

Patrick Zuo and Mia Li contributed research.