Cheng Jianping, who is a Chinese online activist, disappeared on her wedding day as local police detained and sentenced her to one year in labor camp for the crime of retweeting a satirical tweet posted by her fiance. They said she was guilty of “disturbing social order.”
“Sentencing someone to a year in a labour camp, without trial, for simply repeating another person’s clearly satirical observation on Twitter demonstrates the level of China’s repression of online expression” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Director for the Asia-Pacific.
If you don't speak Chinese, this is what the tweet says: "Angry youth, charge! Anti-Japanese demonstrations, smashing Japanese products, that was all done years ago by Guo Quan. It’s no new trick. If you really wanted to kick it up a notch, you’d immediately fly to Shanghai to smash the Japanese Expo pavilion.”
Re-education Through Labour is an administrative punishment that can deprive an individual of their liberty for up to 4 years through a decision by the police without a trial by an independent court. And to think China will rule the world one day… scary.
PS: The offending tweet was a joke intended to mock young Chinese demonstrators who had smashed Japanese products in protest over a maritime incident between China and Japan. But in China, joke’s on you!
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