Chinese authorities have charged a former investigative journalist over comments about a military-themed blockbuster movie , accusing him of defaming Chinese soldiers from the Korean war. Prosecutors in the southern city of Sanya, Hainan province, announced late on Friday that Luo Changping, 41, would stand trial on criminal charges but did not say when the hearing would take place. The prosecutors have also asked the court to find Luo liable for civil damages, citing the “adverse social impact” caused by his social media comments. “Publicly insulting and defaming martyrs on the internet is not only a serious infringement of their reputation and honour but also blatant opposition to and trampling on core socialist values and patriotism,” the prosecutors said. China jails popular blogger over India border clash death toll query Luo was detained in October two days after he posted comments online about soldiers depicted in The Battle at Lake Changjin , a movie based on a confrontation with US-led United Nations forces at Chosin Reservoir in the winter of 1950. He said the troops who died in the freezing temperatures in the movie were “stupid”. Luo posted the comments on his personal Weibo account, which then had 2 million followers, prompting intense criticism online. The People’s Liberation Army’s official newspaper, PLA Daily , also responded with a commentary, calling the soldiers an “indelible symbol” of China’s role in the Korean war and saying “heroes should never be ridiculed”. Luo removed the post from the social media site and apologised for the “inappropriate comments”. But prosecutors said Luo’s comments stoked “intense rage among the public and had an adverse social impact”. In the Friday night statement, prosecutors also said Luo had confessed to wrongdoing. Chinese travel blogger jailed over ‘disrespectful’ photos at soldiers’ cemetery Luo is among a number of opinion leaders to be prosecuted since the Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs came into effect in 2018, making it a criminal offence to defame or deny the deeds and spirit of the country’s martyrs. Popular blogger Qiu Ziming was jailed for “defaming martyrs” in June after he suggested the death toll of the China-India border clash last year was higher than the official count of four, and questioned the PLA’s resolution to defend China’s border. Qiu, who had more than 2.5 million followers on Weibo, was sentenced to eight months in prison. As an investigative reporter , Luo exposed the corruption of former National Development and Reform Commission deputy head Liu Tienan in 2012. Liu was later jailed for life for taking bribes and Luo left journalism and started a legal consultancy business.
