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Translation: New York Times v. Sullivan with PRC Characteristics

Intermediate People's Court of Yulin, Shaanxi Administrative Decision (2020) Shaan 08 Administrative Final No. 521 Translator's Summary: The court found that police did not violate Yuan's rights when they subjected him to administrative detention for reposting an article to his personal social media accounts that police determined defamed a Communist Party cadre. The court held that as a journalist Yuan had a duty to verify the contents of the article. Appellant (plaintiff in the original trial) Yuan Jianmeng, male, born [INTENTIONALLY OMITTED], 1982, Han ethnicity, born in Taiyuan, Shanxi, residing in Yingze District, Taiyuan. Entrusted representative Zhang Jinzhen is a lawyer at the Shanxi Wenying Law Firm. Appellee (defendant in the original trial) Public Security Bureau of Yulin, Hengshan Division.Address: Shaanxi Yulin, Huancheng North Road, Hengshan District, Unified Social Credit Code: 1161080001******. Legal representative He Guoyu, director. Person in charge of the

Baidu Increases Censorship of "Xi Jinping"

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 China's search engines have censored the names of leaders of the Communist Party of China and the PRC government for over a decade (see: http://blog.feichangdao.com/2012/12/how-other-websites-are-censoring.html ). They typically do this by restricting search results to a white list of around 20 websites under their own control or under the direct control of the central government and the Communist Party. This is illustrated below with a screenshot showing that a search for "Xi Jinping" in Chinese characters (ä¹ è¿‘å¹³) on Baidu returns millions of results (left), but the same search limited to educational websites returns no results (right). Paging through the result one finds that the only websites shown are Party and government mouthpieces such as Xinhua, the People's Daily, the China Daily, CCTV (the state controlled television broadcaster), CRI (the state controlled radio broadcaster), etc. This censorship is done for searches of leaders names in Chinese characters and

Translation: Court Judgment in Li Doe Disturbing the Peace Case

Translator's Summary : The court found Li guilty on the grounds that he "made inappropriate statements in posts through WeChat Moments or in writings on paper hung on the office building of the People's Government of Tanxi that insulted Party and State leaders and supported 'Hong Kong Independence.'" The court sentenced Li to prison notwithstanding what it characterized as his "mild mental retardation" and "limited criminal capacity for the illegal actions." People's Court of Pingchang County, Sichuan Criminal Judgment (2020) Chuan 1923 Criminal First Instance No. 15 The public prosecution agency was the People's Procuratorate of Pingchang. Defendant Li Doe, male, born [INTENTIONALLY OMITTED], Han ethnicity, junior high school education, laborer, household registration in Pingchang, Sichuan, currently residing in Pingchang. Taken into criminal detention by the Public Security Bureau of Pingchang on September 5, 2019 on suspici

The 7.09 Prosecutions: Zhu Chengzhi Criminal Judgment

Intermediate People's Court of Suzhou, Jiangsu Criminal Ruling (2020) Su 05 Criminal Final No. 6601  **** Translator's Summary : The court found Zhu guilty on the grounds that he "used foreign Internet platforms to disseminate a large amount of false information relating to significant domestic events that seriously damaged the image of the country and seriously harmed national interests, creating a disturbance, confusing public opinion, causing severe disruption of public order." The court specifically cited Zhu for using "Twitter and Facebook to maliciously sensationalize major domestic events such as the "Jiansanjiang Incident," "Qing'an Incident," and the "Lei Yang Incident," all of which occurred at least two years prior to Zhu's arrest. **** The original public prosecution agency was the People's Procuratorate of Wuzhong District, Suzhou. Appellant (defendant in the original trial) Zhu Chengzhi, male, born [INTENTIO

The 7.09 Prosecutions: Yu Wensheng Criminal Judgment

Intermediate Court of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Criminal Judgment (2019) Su 03 Criminal First Instance No. 201  **** Translator's Summary : The court found Yu, a lawyer who represented Wang Quanzhang, guilty on the grounds that he "published open letters on the Internet through 'Twitter' and 'Facebook' to attack the State regime and the socialist system. He distorted and fabricated facts about, and sensationalized, hot-button domestic incidents in the name of 'rights defense.' He accepted foreign funds and interviews many times, denied the leadership of the Communist Party of China, denigrated China's governmental and judicial agencies, defamed China's rule of law as being in retreat and human rights as deteriorating, intentionally provoked people who did not know the truth to hate China's current political system, and incited subversion of China's State regime and the overthrow of the socialist order." The public prosecution agency was the P