BEIJING: Chinese police have detained two people accused of inciting unrest in online postings, state media and a rights group said yesterday in a sign of official concern over potential social instability.
Police in south China’s Guangdong province detained a car owner for posting messages online trying to organise a bumper sticker campaign against rising vehicle licencing fees, the Global Times reported.
The owner, publicly identified only by an online name, hoped for 100 cars to parade around Yangjiang city to protest a proposed new 400 yuan ($65) annual vehicle licencing fee, the report said.
The driver printed bumper stickers depicting a clenched fist and reading: “To hell with the annual fee” and “Say no to corruption!”, state-owned paper said, and was detained by the authorities.
No protest took place and the licence fee has yet to be approved.
In the second case, police in Beijing took away Zhai Xiaobing on November 7 after he posted a joke about the collapse of the Great Hall of the People, where the Communist Party held a once-a-decade leadership transition this month, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders said.
Zhai wrote on Twitter that the collapse would happen in an upcoming film in the “Final Destination” horror franchise starting on November 8, the same day the party meeting started, the group said.
Twitter is blocked inside China and only web users who know how to circumvent the censors’ “Great Firewall of China” can access it.
Zhai’s disappearance has led several hundred people, including dissident artist Ai Weiwei, to sign an online petition for his release, the group said.
AFP:
