Team News Riveting
A Chinese blogger has been arrested for quizzing China’s account of casualties in the deadly clash with Indian troops at the Himalayan border last year.
Chou Ziming, a former journalist who runs an account on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform with 2.4 million followers, had written a post on Friday raising questions about China’s version of the incident. It came after China revealed for the first time on Thursday that four Chinese soldiers died in the clash, which also left 20 Indian soldiers dead.
“If you look at it carefully, the four who lost their lives were honored for their ‘rescues.’ If even the people who went to save others were sacrificed, then that must mean there were people who weren’t saved, which means there must be more than four people who died,” Chou, 38, Apple Daily reported quoting what he wrote in a Weibo post.
Chou was then arrested by police in Nanjing, China’s eastern Jiangsu province on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” CCTV said in a report on Saturday.
Chou’s remarks garnered attention online, leading authorities to first block him from posting on his Weibo account for one year. As of Friday night, his Weibo account, including a second one, have been shut down by the authorities.
A search result for Chou’s account only shows that it is no longer available because the platform received complaints about its “violation of laws and regulations under the Weibo Community Convention.”
Chou’s allegations triggered a storm of criticisms from several state media outlets.
“There is a bottom line for public opinion and a bottom line for the law. Anyone who tries to smear any heroic acts should be despised by the people and pay the price,” a People’s Liberation Army affiliated online media said in a post.
