Former Chinese scribe detained for questioning country's role in Korean War
Oct 09, 2021
Beijing [China], October 9 : A former Chinese journalist has been detained by police in the country for criticising China's role in the Korean War and its depiction in a blockbuster movie.
Luo Changping, 40, was held for his commentary on a state-sponsored film, "The Battle at Lake Changjin," which portrays an American loss in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, The New York Times (NYT) reported.
Luo was detained after he took to the Chinese social media platform Weibo, and questioned the legal justification of China's intervention when North Korean troops invaded South Korea.
The Battle at Lake Changjin is expected to be the largest in Chinese film history. It has pushed the patriotic sentiment of people across the country to a peak, Chinese state media Global Times reported. The film had grossed over USD 521 million.
According to Global Times, Changping "used puns to satirize and humiliate the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) martyrs on his Weibo account, which angered many Chinese netizens, and his account was later banned."
Luo's arrest was propagated on state media and China's main television network. His Weibo account has since been blocked and the original post has been deleted.
Back in June, a popular Chinese blogger was sentenced to eight months in prison, for his comments regarding military casualties of Galwan valley incident with India.
Qiu Ziming, an internet celebrity with more than 2.5 million followers, received a jail term of eight months for 'defaming martyrs', marking the first such case in China since a new amendment was attached to the Criminal Law.
