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Showing posts from November, 2016

Court Upholds Jail Time for Statements Critical of the Dead Heroes of Wolf Tooth Mountain

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As previously noted on this blog, on October 19, 2016, China's Supreme People's Court published a piece on its website entitled "People's Courts Come to the Defense of the 'Five Heroes of Wolf Tooth Mountain' and Other Model Cases Involving the Right of Human Dignity of Heroic Figures" (人民法院依法保护“狼牙山五壮士”等英雄人物人格权益典型案例).  That article explained why People’s Courts in Beijing had been correct in holding Hong Zhenkuai liable for defaming two dead soldiers. The defamation took place in two articles written by Hong and published in 2013 on the Caijing website and in the Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine. For more on this, see Supreme People's Court Website Explains Why Courts Found Author Guilty of Defaming Dead Heroes . Those two articles questioned the official version of events that took place during World War II, which are summarized on the website of China’s State Council Information Office as follows: In 1941, during the Sino-Japanese war, a group of five

Supreme People's Court Website Explains Why Courts Found Author Guilty of Defaming Dead Heroes

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On January 13, 2016, the state sponsored Global Times published an article entitled “ Leftists and Rightists Battle Over How to Interpret Stories of China’s Revolutionary Past .” Some excerpts: Last month, district courts in Beijing ruled against two former authors and editors of Yanhuang Chunqiu, an outspoken liberal political magazine on the right of the Chinese political spectrum, who filed two separate lawsuits against leftist scholars Guo Songmin and Mei Xinyu on charges of defamation. The legal battle can be traced back to November 2013, when Yanhuang Chunqiu published an article by author and historian Hong Zhenkuai which pointed out several incongruities in the different accounts of the story of five famous Chinese revolutionary heroes. The story was edited by Huang Zhong. Both Hong and Huang are former managing editors of the magazine. . . . . This discussion infuriated some leftist scholars, who are often staunch defenders of China's revolutionary history. Guo and

Supreme People's Court Website: No Liability for Inappropriate Speech Directed at Historical Nihilists

On October 19, 2016, China's Supreme People's Court published a piece on its website entitled "People's Courts Come to the Defense of the 'Five Heroes of Wolf Tooth Mountain' and Other Model Cases Involving the Right of Human Dignity of Heroic Figures" ( 人民法院依法保护“狼牙山五壮士”等英雄人物人格权益典型案例 ).  This blog previously summarized two of the four cases discussed in the article: A Dispute Wherein Huang Zhong and Hong Zhenkuai Sue Mei Xinyu for Infringing Their Right to Reputation A Dispute Wherein Huang Zhong and Hong Zhenkuai Sue Guo Songmin for Infringing Their Right to Reputation See: Courts Hold Referring to Historical Nihilists as "Sons of Bitches" is Not Defamatory The SPC website article began by going over the facts of each case, which are summarized here: In its November 2013 edition the journal Yanhuang Chunqiu (炎黄春秋) published an article entitled “Inconsistent Details in the 'Five Heroes of Wolf Tooth Mountain” (狼牙山五壮士”的细节分歧). The a