China Arrests Anti-Corruption Blogger

quantr tips this news from Bloomberg: "A Chinese journalist who posted allegations of corrupt dealings during the privatization of state-owned assets has been formally arrested on a defamation charge, his lawyer said. The Beijing People's Procuratorate approved Liu Hu's arrest on Sept. 30, lawyer Zhou Ze said by phone yesterday. Liu, who worked for the Guangzhou-based New Express, had been in detention since Aug. 24, according to Zhou. Liu's arrest adds to evidence that the government is stepping up a crackdown against people who go online with revelations of official malfeasance. At the same time that the Communist Party has vowed to get tough on corruption, authorities have targeted outspoken bloggers and announced that people who post comments deemed defamatory could face as much as three years behind bars."

Isn't it ironic ...

[gstoddart]

Don't you think? Yet is really is ironic.

Sounds like they're not so much worried about stopping corruption, as stopping people reporting about corruption.

Just like every other government.

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[intermodal]

This is almost more honest than the approach of other governments.

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[ackthpt]

In Soviet China government Logs YOU in.

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[ackthpt]

On the subject of ironic

Why did Iron Man go to China?

He needed a charge.

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[TemperedAlchemist]

I thought this at first too, but then it occurred to me that the opposite is more likely.

The Chinese government is cracking down on corruption, and in turn the corrupt are cracking down to silence anyone who would make them look bad.

can't wait till Rahm Emanuel learns this tactic

[iggymanz]

over hear in Crook County, IL, then might find the Chinese government's ideas intriguing and would wish to suscribe to their newsletter

Re:can't wait till Rahm Emanuel learns this tactic

[Anonymous Coward]

Those dastardly Democrats! You need to get some good, honest Republicans in power there!

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[iggymanz]

vote for the mega-corporate bitch of your choice?

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[iggymanz]

I did not vote for either party; or are you suggesting an alternative method than the ballot box?

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[CrimsonAvenger]

Those dastardly Democrats! You need to get some good, honest Republicans in power there!

In Chicago???

Hell will freeze over first. Twice (once when you find an honest Republican, again when he wins an election in Chicago).

obvious conclusion is obvious

[cellocgw]

They've simply defined "corruption" as "Speaking out against the government." As experienced coders, you should all be familiar with this type of "operator overload" :-(

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[NatasRevol]

It was in The Fucking Summary.

He's charged with defamation, not corruption.

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[interval1066]

Yes, people need to be jailed for the things they say.

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[NatasRevol]

So defamation isn't a crime?

Or do you *know* that corruption was taking place.

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[ihtoit]

it depends on the jurisdiction. Some (such as England which is a constitutional legal system) defamation is a civil matter. In others which operate a primarily statutory legal system, it can be civil or criminal - depends how far the legislative branch has gone to suppress freedom of speech or expression of dissent.

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[steelfood]

War is peace.

Just like here. Closed is open.

Progress!

[Anonymous Coward]

They didn't hang the blogger on a tree, didn't beat him to death and throw the body somewhere in pit. Instead they arrested this guy officially and they're going to press charge by real laws.

That's so much better than what they had before. People should celebrate!

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[ackthpt]

They didn't hang the blogger on a tree, didn't beat him to death and throw the body somewhere in pit. Instead they arrested this guy officially and they're going to press charge by real laws.

That's so much better than what they had before. People should celebrate!

Real laws, which they'll make up as they go along, same way as they invent charges to suit the situation.

The blogger rubbed someone the wrong way.

It's China

[cascadingstylesheet]

Um, yeah. It's China.

They are a communist dictatorship. They don't have freedom of the press. If you say things that the government doesn't like, they lock you up. (If they find out and get around to it - for run of the mill stuff, they will have people with the drive and efficiency of your average telephone sanitizer on the job.)

what beans?

[themushroom]

That's one way to fight corruption -- by quieting those who point it out.

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[ackthpt]

Um, yeah. It's China.

They are a communist dictatorship. They don't have freedom of the press. If you say things that the government doesn't like, they lock you up. (If they find out and get around to it - for run of the mill stuff, they will have people with the drive and efficiency of your average telephone sanitizer on the job.)

A dictator implies 1 leader calling all the shots. What you actually have is an oligarchy, many leaders, agreeing on policy and electing a figurehead. Lip-service payed to Chairman Mao (who was a bandit chieftain before co-opting the communist movement and ruthlessly purging his rivals and creating myths to suit his goals) so ... there's a pretty good chance that the rising rich in China are now pwning "party" members and some of them don't take kindly to criticism.

Re:It's China

[gstoddart]

A dictator implies 1 leader calling all the shots. What you actually have is an oligarchy, many leaders, agreeing on policy and electing a figurehead.

No, an oligarchy implies corporations are running the show.

How's "oppressive regime" work for you? Or, "dictatorship ran by committee"? I guess there's always "Glorious and selfless people's leaders", but people might laugh.

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[Anonymous Coward]

No, OP is right, an oligarchy just means that the power in a society rests with a just a small class of people. A corporatocracy is just one kind of oligarchical rule.

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[interval1066]

A dictator implies 1 leader calling all the shots. What you actually have is an oligarchy...

Yeah, that makes it sound a lot better.

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[CanHasDIY]

Um, yeah. It's China.... If you say things that the government doesn't like, they lock you up. (If they find out and get around to it - for run of the mill stuff, they will have people with the drive and efficiency of your average telephone sanitizer on the job.)

You seem to be under the impression that sort of behavior is exclusive to the Chinese government.

They don't have freedom of the press.

Neither does 'Murica, apparently:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/politics/06cnd-leak.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 [nytimes.com]

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/209539/fox-news-reporter-who-wont-reveal-sources-threatened-with-jail/ [poynter.org]

Remember

[djupedal]

The best way to live outside the law in any country is to live within it.

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[VortexCortex]

The best way to live outside the law in any country is to live within it.

Truly, living inside the laws would be the best way to rule as rules, for anything, not just for countries...

The laws are intangible thought machines. As the laws grow they increase in power and complexity, more laws means more subjugation of mankind. The complexity of the legal systems have nearly surpassed the bar for sentience. Once that occurs you get a combination of The Matrix and The Terminator. Now, re-watch those movies and realize they are allegory for the intangible thought machines which alr

The nerve of some bloggers

[ackthpt]

Didn't pay the necessary bribes to blog about anti-corruption

in bitcoins

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah but nobody is arrested in America for criticizing China!

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[P-niiice]

And 50% of the population are perfectly fine with shooting someone because you're scared of them. including and especially cops. We need to clean our own house before worrying about someone else's.

Obligatory Futurama

[Jason Levine]

Documentary Narrator: Fortunately, our handsomest politicians came up with a way to combat government corruption. We simply arrest anybody who talks about government corruption. Of course, because the corruption still takes place, we need to arrest more and more people for speaking out against it, solving the problem once and for all.
Suzie: But...
Documentary Narrator: Once and for all!

China is corrupt by design

[kawabago]

It is not possible to form a government where power flows from the top down without the government becoming corrupt. Can't be done. This blogger's arrest proves the point. When a citizen reports official corruption, the citizen is jailed for leaking state secrets. Yes, corruption in China is considered a state secret. Can corruption get any worse? Yes! Look at North Korea. A communist state with a hereditary emperor for a leader. North Korea went from democratic to communist to feudal fiefdom. All to benef

Not enough information; was it libel?

[Yakasha]

Think of it this way: He was arrested for libeling a government official. He just blogged "omg he did something illegal", without proof, and without the ability to prove it.

The only difference in the US is that this would be a civil matter instead of criminal. But with a government & laws based in non-capitalist ideals I imagine there are a lot more criminal than civil offenses there when compared to the US.

From Communism Straight to Fascism.

[srobert]

Am I the only one who sees the irony in the "Communist Party" overseeing "the privatization of state-owned assets"? It's like "we'll go instantaneously from the extreme totalitarian left to the extreme totalitarian right without passing through any democratically controlled space in between. Oh, but we'll hang on that 'Communist' brand name because to admit that didn't work would be losing face."

pleading ignorance here

[ihtoit]

...but in England, the defence to a defamation claim is the facts in evidence. The trick is to get the facts in evidence. If you're defending a defamation claim and have the supporting facts in evidence, providing you're not in front of a corrupt judge you're home free; if either condition isn't met, you're fucked.

Snowden

[NewYork]

Sounds like Snowden episode to me.

Re:News For Nerds

[gstoddart]

Why is this here? How the fuck is this relevant to slashdot? No tech angles in play here.

Blog about corruption, get arrested for defamation.

That's pretty much the point of the YRO section of Slashdot.

You know, Your Rights Online.

At this rate, I won't be surprised to see this start happening in other countries which are supposed to be against this sort of thing. *cough* America *cough*

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[bob_super]

"[Snowden/Assange]'s arrest adds to evidence that the government is stepping up a crackdown against people who go online with revelations of official malfeasance." Yep, sounds good.

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[gstoddart]

And, of course, there's this [slashdot.org] as well.

Aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information and broad electronic surveillance programs deter government sources from speaking to journalists. In the Obama administration's Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press. Those suspected of discussing with reporters anything that the government has classified as secret are subject to investigation, including lie-detector tests and scrutiny of their telephone and e-mail records

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[Ralph Wiggam]

Snowden has been charged with leaking classified information. That's illegal in every country and has been for a century.

Assange has not been charged with anything by the US government and nobody with authority has proposed doing so.

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[bob_super]

Snowden has exposed broad secret surveillance that is clearly breaching the spirit (and probably the letter) of his country's constitution. There's a term for that "whistle-blowing", and it should be protected.
Now, it's normal that he is charged and there is an investigation. What's not normal is that everybody expects him to be convicted by the USA's government^H^H^H^H^H^H^ an impartial judge.

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[Ralph Wiggam]

Snowden made no effort to follow established whistleblower protocols. Only judges have the authority to interpret the spirit of the constitution. Snoweden chose to do something illegal because he thinks it's the right thing to do, and that's perfectly noble. But it does not excuse him from punishment for those illegal actions. I have not seen anyone argue that what he did wasn't illegal.

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[AlphaWoIf_HK]

Snowden made no effort to follow established whistleblower protocols.

And he shouldn't have, because if he had, the public still wouldn't know about the NSA surveillance, and everyone else wouldn't be aware of the specifics. What you ask for is that he let politicians blow the fact that the government is blatantly violating the constitution under the rug.

But it does not excuse him from punishment for those illegal actions.

I damn well think it should; the people who should be arrested are the politicians who supported this and everyone directly involved in the NSA.

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[Ralph Wiggam]

I damn well think it should; the people who should be arrested are the politicians who supported this and everyone directly involved in the NSA.

Then you don't believe in the rule of law. If you want the laws to be changed, there are plenty of ways to accomplish that.

The laws we have now disagree with you.

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[bob_super]

Then you don't believe in the rule of law. If you want the laws to be changed, there are plenty of ways to accomplish that.

The laws we have now disagree with you.

Has the laws' constitutionality been tested ?

A few other democracies have ways to challenge a law right after it's voted, even if the majority and the head of state believe the law is legitimate. In the US, you have to wait until someone can prove that they are affected (standing) before they can start a very very long and costly battle to try to repeal something that is already effected

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[AlphaWoIf_HK]

Then you don't believe in the rule of law.

Not if those laws are unjust, as many have been.

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[Ralph Wiggam]

I think that speeding laws are unjust. Should I be able to drive as fast as I want?

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[AlphaWoIf_HK]

You can try, but you'll have to find other individuals to get behind you if you expect to get anywhere, as that's where change starts. Your infantile examples and analogies will do you no good.

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[ihtoit]

try it, get dragged through the court system, get it to the Supreme Court and make a Constitutional challenge to speed limits. Best of luck and try not to kill anyone in the process. Point is, aside from the insanely bad analogy, the only way to challenge bad Law is to break it and challenge it in Court at the highest level possible, set precedent - it's precedent that writes Law, not some keyboard monkey in a basement.

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[noh8rz10]

Then you don't believe in the rule of law. If you want the laws to be changed, there are plenty of ways to accomplish that.

The laws we have now disagree with you.

the law? i am the law!

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[bob_super]

Only judges have the authority to interpret the spirit of the constitution.

Shiver...

"only judges can issue rulings on the basis of the constitution" FTFY. Everybody can AND SHOULD interpret the spirit, and if there is no safe legal recourse under current law to point out constitutional violations, going to the 4th branch is the right thing to do

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[celle]

"Only judges have the authority to interpret the spirit of the constitution."

      I haven't seen anyone yet challenge this, how sad. As members of the US public we have the authority, responsibility, and right to interpret the wording and the spirit of the constitution at all times just like any party to any contract.

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[Ralph Wiggam]

China is jailing people for criticizing their government. The US is not.

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[Ralph Wiggam]

Snowden wasn't indicted for criticizing the government. He was indicted for leaking classified information. That is illegal in every country.

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[ihtoit]

isn't there an exception somewhere for when (not if, it is apparently a common occurrence) classification of materials is misused to conceal evidence of criminal activity by the State? For instance, when someone is indicted by the Public Prosecutor in England, any and all evidence whether relied upon or not is revealed and offered to all parties to the case per the Criminal Procedure Rules 2013 Part 1.1 paras. 2(b)-(c). This would necessarily include any and all such documents and other materials marked "C

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[SteveFoerster]

Yes, I've always thought the approach of U.S. policy makers of completely disregarding criticism is more efficient than the approach of Chinese policy makers of trying to stop it and responding to it when it happens.

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[gstoddart]

America is not a country, it's a continent.

Everyone except Americans seems to know that.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Well, in my country America means USofA. And even if we are not Americans, we at least know that there is no continent named America. You may think of the Americas if you really want to group two continents together.

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[gstoddart]

Well, in my country America means USofA.

And it's largely been that way for decades now.

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[khellendros1984]

Well, checking the German and Spanish wikipedia articles on Continents, the German intro notes a 7-continent model (with North and South America as separate continents), and the Spanish wikipedia page has a nice section describing which continental divisions are commonly taught in different places. It notes that the Americas are commonly considered a single continent in Latin America, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Belgium. They're considered separate in Japan, countries of the former Soviet Union, mos

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[Mitchell314]

That America can also informally refer to the USA is from historical precedent, not out of ignorance. Historical precedent in part related to Europeans dicking everybody around in the past few centuries (not that we weren't).

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[Clsid]

In Spanish it is called America where is the confusion comes from. Remember that after all the whole thing is named after Americo Vespucci. I think the main issue here is that people in the British colonies referred to them as Americans to differentiate from Europeans, while the Spanish and Portuguese parts of the continent referred themselves as From The Indies, or criollos (creoles). Either way, Europeans in the Americas liked to say they were more pure and that brought a lot of social friction that still

Re:News For Nerds

[CanHasDIY]

America is not a country, it's a continent.

No, dink, it's a common shortening of the name for a country; specifically, the United States of America.

You're thinking of North America, or maybe South America, or possibly the quasi-continent in-between known as Central America, but there is no continent that is known as just "America."

Of course, we all know that nobody on the internet is dense and uninformed enough to actually believe in the amiguity you're referring to, so it pretty much goes without saying that your comment is pure troll and nothing else. The real question is, why? What was your purpose behind leaving such an obviously stupid and pointless comment? For the attention?

Well, congrats, you got it: We all now know how stupidly uptight and unreasonable you can be. Bet your parents are real proud.

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[VortexCortex]

Ah yes, the incorrect pedant troll. One of my favorites.

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[Flavianoep]

No, he's probably Latino-American.
We (I'm a Brazilian) are taught in the school that America is either the name of the continent or of the three Americas considered as a whole. We usually refer to the USA as Estados Unidos and some (not including me) even call its inhabitants "estadounidenses" and insist that "Americans" are the inhabitants of any America.

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[VocationalZero]

So does this mean you potentially get offended when people bash "stupid Americans", or does the label apply only when convenient?

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[Flavianoep]

The label apply only when convenient or true. We cannot feel proud of "American research institutes" or "American prowess during Summer Olympics".

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[QQBoss]

Does Portuguese not have a way to differentiate between America (short hand for U.S.A.) and Americas (shorthand for North, Central, and South America as a whole? In Spanish, for example, FIBA Americas is the name for Mexican-founded basketball league that covers all of the Americas. Although, to confuse things the American Baseball League allows those naughty Canadians to play as pretend Americans, it seems (well, they usually do get paid in USD, so why not).

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[Flavianoep]

Yes, we have this word 'Americas', but we don't feel the need for using it because we never refer to USA as 'America'.

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[bennomatic]

I assume you religiously refer to Rhode Island by its official name, 'Rhode Island and Providence Plantations'.

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[AJH16]

Actually, if you want to be technical, America is 2 continents. If you are going to be asinine, at least be sure you make a correct asinine statement. North America is a continent, South America is a continent. America generally refers to the country, Americas refers to the two continents and North or South America refer to the individual continents.

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[Nyder]

Why is this here? How the fuck is this relevant to slashdot? No tech angles in play here. It doesn't matter if you don't live in China. Mind your own fucking business.

There are numerous China blogs that cover this stuff better and more extensively.

I miss the host files rants, now it's all "Why is this here?" posts. how fucking boring.

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[ArcadeMan]

"well connected people getting rich for doing nothing other than knowing the right people"

How is this different from the USA?

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[VocationalZero]

Is that why they bothered posting corruption allegation on a blog with the aim of informing the public? Why risk being arrested if everyone can work it out for themselves?

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[corbettw]

Are you fucking kidding me? I've been coming to /. for 15 years now, and government crackdowns on free speech online have been a core part of their coverage that entire time.

If you don't like then create an account, go into your preferences, and turn off Your Rights Online (YRO). Otherwise, shut the fuck up and go away.

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[quantr]

you can read an article and with basic reading comprehension skills discover he posted articles on the internet. internet is technology. internet uses computers. computers are technology. get with the program!