Chinese authorities on Saturday named and shamed an “environmental expert” as a nationwide “rumour” crackdown campaign continues.
The arrest of 47-year old Dong Liangjie on suspicion of “inciting trouble” in Beijing marks the latest detention by police of a series of at least dozens of bloggers in China accused of fabricating and spreading online rumours.
Dong, co-founder of a water-purifier company, is an avid user of China’s microblogging service Sina Weibo and is followed by more than three million bloggers. He has promoted himself as an environmental expert by frequently publishing environment-related academic articles or commenting on environmental issues.
But police said that many of the posts on his blog appear to contain sensational or false information that exaggerates the problem of environmental pollution in China, Xinhua reported.
For example, in one online blog post last year that was widely reposted, Dong cited an academic dissertation in saying that a study had found that water samples from six major water supply systems in China contained traces of contraceptive medicine that could affect the fertility of water consumers.
But later the dissertation’s author spoke up to say that Dong had distorted the paper’s conclusion, while other environmental pundits also debunked Dong’s claim.