Saturday, May 30, 2020

At Least 10 People Convicted in China in 2019 for Twitter Posts that "Disturbed the Peace"

Following up on last week's post "Court Jails Man for 8 Months for Tweets That Harmed China's Image," below is a list of 9 other similar judgments.

Chen Guoji Criminal Judgment (陈国吉寻衅滋事一审刑事判决书), (2018) Ning 1321 Criminal First Instance No. 164, wherein the court found "Defendant Chen Guoji 'liked' and reposted false information and confusing videos that implicated the image of the State and insulted and defamed State leaders, and his actions are sufficient to cause severe chaos in public order, and constitute the crime of disturbing the peace, and should be punished."

Sentence: 2 year suspended sentence.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=61aa44e0314a4bfba324aa3b00a6ae78

Wei Qi Criminal Judgment (魏琪寻衅滋事一审刑事判决书), (2019) Ning 0291 Criminal First Instance No. 146, wherein the court found "Defendant Wei Qi used information networks to insult others and spread false information on information networks under serious circumstances, he disrupted social order, and his actions constitute the crime of disturbing the peace."

The information "included over 100 posts with inappropriate speech content that was anti-Party and anti-Communist, and that insulted State leaders."

Sentence: 6 months imprisonment.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=264806519c1242f282a0aa560021d4de

Yang Zhaoxing Criminal Judgment (杨兆星寻衅滋事一审刑事判决书), (2019) Yue 0605 Criminal First Instance No. 639, wherein the court found "Defendant Yang Zhaoxing spread false information on information networks that he clearly knew to be fabricated, incited trouble, and caused severe chaos in public order, and his actions constitute the crime of disturbing the peace."

The information included Twitter posts and reposts of "false information fabricated by foreign media regarding China's ruling Party, government regime, and State leaders."

Sentence: 10 months imprisonment.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=d0b4f852e0fa4c4681b3aa5b00c1b74f

Xu Jianyu Criminal Judgment (许建榆寻衅滋事罪一审刑事判决书), (2019) Shaan 0802 Criminal First Instance No. 383, wherein the court found "Defendant Xu Doe repeatedly posted and reposted information on the foreign website Twitter that insulted, besmirched, and maliciously attacked Party and State leaders, the socialist system, police groups, and others, and he continued to post and repost this type of information even after he had subject to administrative punishment. The circumstances are severe, his actions severely disrupted social order, are an offense under the provisions of Article 293 of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China," constitute the crime of disturbing the peace, and should be punished."

Sentence: 2 years and 6 months imprisonment.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=8fbe1fe8c0164e7aa11caa2200c4affd

Dong Doe Criminal Judgment (董某寻衅滋事罪一审刑事判决书), (2018) Pu 0902 Criminal First Instance No. 342, wherein the court found "Defendant Dong Doe fabricated false information which he transmitted and spread on information networks, he incited trouble, damaged the image of the State, caused severe chaos in public order, and his actions constitute the crime of disturbing the peace."

The information included Twitter posts that "hyped up the Dong Yaoqiong ink splashing incident" and "inappropriate speech that spread rumors and besmirched and attacked the Party and the State."

Sentence: 8 months imprisonment.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=e79d66abd4bc4ceb9515aac500f72d87

Cheng Doe Criminal Judgment (程某某寻衅滋事一审刑事判决书), (2019) Wan 0824 Criminal First Instance No. 110, wherein the court found "Defendant Cheng Doe used information networks to insult others, and besmirch the image of the Party and the State, under circumstances that were vile, and his actions constitute the crime of disturbing the peace."

Sentence: 10 months imprisonment.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=9694db719f024150a90aaad80026a096

Ge Renqiang Criminal Judgment (葛仁强寻衅滋事一审刑事判决书), (2019) Ning 0291 Criminal First Instance No. 329, wherein the court found "Defendant Ge Renqiang spread a large amount information on information networks despite clearly knowing that it was false information that had been fabricated to insult and besmirch State leaders, he incited trouble, he caused severe chaos in public order, his actions constitute the crime of disturbing the peace, and should be punished."

Sentence: 6 months imprisonment.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=9694db719f024150a90aaad80026a096

Gao Zhenqiang Criminal Judgment (高振强寻衅滋事一审刑事判决书), (2019) Ning 0304 Criminal First Instance No. 323, wherein the court found the following fact sufficient to convict the defendant of the crime of disturbing the peace: "From the time defendant Gao Zhenqiang applied for a Twitter account on May 18 2017 until June 11, 2019, his Twitter account with the name "Butterfly Flying" posted and reposted a total of 17,051 tweets, and of those over 80% included content that related to attacking the Party and the State and central Party and government leaders, which then received various amounts of hits and reposts, and between April 20 and June 11, 2019, Gao Zhenqiang published 39 posts that attacked State leaders.

Sentence: 6 months imprisonment.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=1eab84577b524de6a56cab29002a09a7

Wang Beiyuan Criminal Judgment (汪北源诽谤一审刑事判决书), (2019) Yue 2071 Criminal First Instance No. 1881, in which the court found: "Even though the information posted by defendant Wang Beiyuan was not entirely comprised of harmful information that besmirched State leaders, smeared China's government, and denounced State policies, nevertheless he fabricated facts to damage the reputations of Party and State leaders, and the content of the defamatory information he spread on the Internet harmed the image of the State and State interests, and such circumstances should be considered severe."

Sentence: 1 year imprisonment.

Source: https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=75c5e923fd0d4232bcfaab2600f33e00

Translation: Xu Zhiyong's Statement in His Own Defense

 Source: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/694913.html China Digital Times: On April 10, 2023, Xu Zhiyong, a well-known human rights de...