Detained teenager, not Bo Xilai, focus of online debate

A detained 16-year-old boy from rural Gansu, and not disgraced Communist Party leader Bo Xilai, dominated online debate over the weekend so much so that censors blocked keywords related to the teenager’s case.

After state media released previously unseen footage of former Chongqing Party Secretary Bo defending himself in court last month and reported his life sentence on graft charges, political debate on China’s social media has now focused on Yang Hui, a middle-school student in Zhangjiachuan county in western Gansu province.

He is the youngest known person to be detained amid a crackdown on “online rumours” in China, which has seen hundreds of people arrested for posting messages online deemed libellous or speculative since last month.

Police took Yang away from school on Tuesday shortly after he questioned the official explanation of the death of a karaoke bar manager on September 12 in three posts on his Tencent weibo account last week. He has since been placed under criminal detention for “inciting trouble”.

Following a public outcry, the Zhangjiachuan Public Security Bureau issued a series of statements arguing the detention was justified “because Yang was spreading rumours, inciting mass demonstrations and seriously obstructing the social order”.

Police claimed that Yang’s posts had been shared more than 500 times. Posts online, which attract more than 500 reposts or 5,000 views, can be deemed criminal according to judicial guidelines issued earlier in September.