China jails blogger for 8 months for Weibo post on PLA toll in Galwan clash
In its verdict, the court noted that the blogger had confessed to his crime of infringing on the reputation and honour of martyrs.
FollowChina has sentenced popular blogger Qiu Ziming to eight months in prison after he put out a post in which he suggested the Chinese PLA death toll in the border clash with India last year was higher than the official count of four.
Ziming is the first person to be jailed under a new provision of the country's criminal law that bans the defamation of martyrs and heroes.
Ziming, who has over 2.5 million followers on China's version of Twitter, Weibo, was found guilty by a court in Nanjing. The court noted in its verdict that the blogger had confessed to his crime of infringing on the reputation and honour of martyrs.
Ziming, however, is not the only blogger to have been arrested for airing his thoughts on the June 15 border clash. Since February, at least six bloggers have faced Beijing's wrath for allegedly defaming the country's martyrs.
China has been ruthlessly cracking down on online comments on the Galwan Valley clash.
In fact, 19-year-old student Wang Jingyu, a Chinese-origin permanent resident of the United States, was arrested over his comment on social media where he questioned Beijing over the Galwan Valley clash.
Wang had questioned online as to why Beijing waited till six months after the border clash to release information on PLA casualties. Following a backlash from the Chinese Communist Party, Wang fled to Istanbul but was arrested at the Dubai International Airport while on his way to New York. He was released on May 27 after weeks of detention.
China's People Daily had on February 19 confirmed the death of four Chinese soldiers in the border faceoff. The dead soldiers were posthumously awarded honorary titles and first-class merit citations.
A colonel, who led them and was seriously injured, was conferred with an honorary title. Ziming, who was sentenced on Tuesday, has said in a Weibo post that the commanding officer survived because he was the highest-ranking officer there.
