Five Mao fanatics jailed over articles ‘smearing former Chinese leaders’
- Group leader, who is awaiting trial, says he has ‘no regrets’ after avidly following Mao Zedong Thought and being drawn to Mao-era socialism
- Ex-Study Times editor says sentencing shows Beijing will not tolerate ultra-leftists if they are deemed destabilising before National Party Congress this year
Five Mao fanatics who ran an internet rumour mill have been sentenced by a court in central China for circulating articles which “smeared former state leaders” but their ringleader, who awaits trial, remained defiant despite the sentencing.
“Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” is a broadly worded criminal charge covering offences such as public disorder and hooliganism, and is also often used by police to muzzle political dissent.
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Articles circulated by the group, and with the Pingdingshan court verdict attached, said they had attacked late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and other reformist leaders for betraying Mao’s revolutionary ideals.
The verdict said they had trafficked more than 100 articles on dozens of WeChat accounts between late 2020 and April last year and profiteered from readers’ tips and advertisements – a common way of making money online in China.
The verdict called them “a gang of evil forces who worked under the name of the Red Culture Association to promote what they called ‘red culture’”.
The five were identified as Zhang Zhijing, Yu Chaoquan, both 31; Qiu Pinghui and her younger sister Pinqin; and student Huang Xiaochun, who turned 20 on Monday. Yu Yixun, the leader who is on bail and under residential surveillance – a form of home detention – is awaiting trial separately.