https://www.scmp.com/rss/298845/feed Dr Zunyou Zhou was born in Anhui Province, China. He obtained his doctoral degree in law from the University of Freiburg (Germany). He published his English-language book “Counter-Terrorism Legislation: Balancing Security and Liberty in Germany and China” in 2014. He is now a senior researcher and head of the China section at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law. His main research interests include criminal justice and counter-terrorism, with a focus on... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com In the early hours of 2017, a lone gunman went on the rampage in Istanbul’s upscale Reina nightclub, killing 39 partygoers and wounding 69 others. While the attacker remains at large, Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the carnage – in revenge for Turkish military operations in Syria. After days of media speculation, Turkish authorities identified the suspect as an ethnic Uygur who moved to the country with his family last November following training in Syria. Several other Uygurs... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2060924/turkey-paying-bloody-price-double-standards-terror?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2060924/turkey-paying-bloody-price-double-standards-terror?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jan 2017 03:45:54 +0000 On August 30, a suicide bomber crashed his car through the entrance of China’s embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, before blowing himself up and wounding three embassy staff. The attack came just a day before the Central Asian country’s 25th national day to celebrate its independence and just days prior to the G20 summit in Hangzhou (杭州). Although no group has claimed responsibility, both Kyrgyz and Chinese authorities have called it an act of terrorism. Amid great pressure from China, Kyrgyz... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2012888/bishkek-bomb-cloud-casts-shadow-over-chinas-interests-abroad?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2012888/bishkek-bomb-cloud-casts-shadow-over-chinas-interests-abroad?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Sep 2016 01:02:22 +0000 Last Thursday, a large truck rammed through a crowd of revellers watching Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, France, killing more than 80 people and injuring more than 300, including two Chinese. The perpetrator, shot dead on the spot by police, was Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian with French residency. Although Islamic State has claimed responsibility, it does not seem that he operated in connection with the terrorist group. The Nice attack is the latest among a spate of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1991243/after-nice-we-all-must-learn-live-certain-amount-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1991243/after-nice-we-all-must-learn-live-certain-amount-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Jul 2016 05:11:16 +0000 Two simultaneous incidents on Sunday brought much international attention to the US and China. In Orlando, Florida, a gunman armed with an assault rifle and handgun shot dead 49 people and wounded 53 others at a gay nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in America’s modern history. The shooter, Omar Mateen, 29, who died in an exchange of fire with police officers, was a US citizen of Afghan heritage. At about the same time in Shanghai, a 29-year-old Chinese man, Zhou Xingbai, set off a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1976096/after-orlando-us-must-accept-strict-gun-laws-curb-mass?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1976096/after-orlando-us-must-accept-strict-gun-laws-curb-mass?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jun 2016 03:47:54 +0000 The bombings in Brussels, the de facto capital of the European Union, bring to mind the November 13 attacks in Paris as well as the terrorist attacks in London in 2005 and Madrid in 2004. Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks on Tuesday at Brussels international airport and a subway station, which killed at least 31 people and wounded scores more. Prior to the Brussels blasts, Belgian authorities had been aware of the imminent danger of terrorist attacks,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1930572/brussels-bombings-expose-europes-stark-choice-between?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1930572/brussels-bombings-expose-europes-stark-choice-between?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Mar 2016 07:08:26 +0000 President Xi Jinping (習近平) delivered a keynote speech at the World Internet Conference, in Wuzhen, Zhejiang (浙江) province last week, in defence of China’s tight censorship of cyberspace. He laid out his vision for global internet governance, in particular emphasising that cyberspace is not beyond the rule of law and efforts must be made to build a sound legal order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of internet users. READ MORE: Cybersecurity is a worthy goal, but the internet is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1893924/cyberspace-chinas-aim-control-and-censor-no-matter-what-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1893924/cyberspace-chinas-aim-control-and-censor-no-matter-what-it?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Dec 2015 04:00:15 +0000 Shortly after the terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, French President François Hollande blamed Islamic State for the carnage. The group in turn claimed responsibility for the attacks as retribution for France’s involvement in the air strikes on IS militants in Syria and Iraq. READ MORE: Coverage of the Paris terrorist attacks So far, four of the seven suicide attackers have been identified as French nationals. Three of the four are believed to have spent time in Syria and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1883152/paris-terrorist-attacks-underline-need-root-out-causes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1883152/paris-terrorist-attacks-underline-need-root-out-causes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Nov 2015 06:19:25 +0000 In an unprecedented crackdown starting from July 9, Chinese authorities interrogated and detained more than 200 human rights lawyers and activists, attracting condemnation worldwide. While most of these people have been released, around 20 remain in custody, including five lawyers and an administrative assistant at the Beijing-based Fengrui Law Firm, which has been the focus of the crackdown. Shortly after the action, China's state-run news media launched a smear campaign, characterising the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1844025/china-needs-its-human-rights-lawyers-fortify-its-rule-law?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1844025/china-needs-its-human-rights-lawyers-fortify-its-rule-law?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Jul 2015 09:45:45 +0000 Only 12 people survived after the cruise ship Eastern Star, carrying 454 people, capsized in the storm-struck waters of the Yangtze River on June 1, making it China's worst nautical disaster in seven decades. The ship's captain, Zhang Shunwen, and its chief engineer, two of the few survivors, are in police custody for questioning, though no formal criminal charges have been filed against them. Immediately following the disaster, the media and internet users accused Zhang of abandoning ship. In... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1823116/reflection-yangtze-ferry-disaster-it-ever-right-captain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1823116/reflection-yangtze-ferry-disaster-it-ever-right-captain?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Jun 2015 06:00:15 +0000 There has been intense debate about the case of Xu Chunhe, an impoverished middle-aged man who was shot dead earlier this month in front of his elderly mother and three children at a railway station in Qingan county, Heilongjiang province, by railway policeman Li Lebin. Shortly after the incident, railway police authorities said Xu had stopped passengers getting through a security gate and when Li intervened, he resisted forcefully and even tried to grab Li's gun before one shot was fired. Given... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1803058/was-chinese-police-officer-justified-shooting-man-dead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1803058/was-chinese-police-officer-justified-shooting-man-dead?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 May 2015 09:15:45 +0000 Last month, news media reported that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress was reviewing the second draft of China's first comprehensive anti-terrorism law. The first draft of this law was published last year for public consultation. In Article 104, the term "terrorism" referred to "any thought, speech or activity that, by means of violence, sabotage or threat, aims to generate social panic, influence national policymaking, create ethnic hatred, subvert state power, or split... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1731061/defining-terrorism-china-should-heed-global-practices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1731061/defining-terrorism-china-should-heed-global-practices?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Mar 2015 19:00:21 +0000 Two high-profile incidents hit the headlines on February 9: in Hubei province, former mining tycoon Liu Han , along with his brother and three others, was executed for murder, running a mafia group and numerous other crimes. In Inner Mongolia , meanwhile, villager Zhao Zhihong was sentenced to death for a string of rapes and murders, including one in 1996 that had been blamed on a teenager by the name of Huugjilt. In the former case, Liu had connections to Zhou Yongkang , the former security... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1716056/chinas-chance-end-injustice-death-penalty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1716056/chinas-chance-end-injustice-death-penalty?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Feb 2015 04:08:15 +0000 On January 18, police from Pingxiang, a city in Guangxi bordering Vietnam, shot dead two Uygurs who had tried, with several others, to cross the border illegally and had attacked the officers. The violent clash came amid an ongoing government campaign against organised human smuggling along China's southwestern borders, waged by the Ministry of Public Security. The campaign is primarily aimed at preventing Uygur extremists from leaving the country to join the insurgent group Islamic... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1693342/its-zeal-eradicate-terrorist-threat-china-must-still-protect?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1693342/its-zeal-eradicate-terrorist-threat-china-must-still-protect?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jan 2015 09:50:24 +0000 On January 2, the police chief of Taiyuan , the capital of Shanxi province, openly apologised to the public and to the relatives of Zhou Xiuyun, a female migrant worker who died after a pay dispute turned violent. Three police officials had been detained for abuse of power and allegedly beating the woman to death. The incident took place on December 13, when a crowd of migrant workers tried to enter a construction site to ask for their salaries but were blocked by security guards. Local... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1679025/shanxi-police-force-must-be-cleaned-if-china-honour-pledge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1679025/shanxi-police-force-must-be-cleaned-if-china-honour-pledge?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2015 06:30:30 +0000 On December 4, local prosecutors interrogated and threatened to punish Meng Xianjun, a retired prosecutor from Huaibei city in Anhui province, for talking to the media about a wrongful conviction. Back in 2005, the then prosecutor had been forced to indict a person called Gao Shang based on the orders of a party official responsible for supervising the work of police officers, prosecutors and judges in Huaibei. This was although Meng and his fellow prosecutors were all convinced Gao had not... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1661460/chinese-constitutions-pride-place-will-mean-little-without?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1661460/chinese-constitutions-pride-place-will-mean-little-without?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Dec 2014 22:43:09 +0000 Last Friday, a Hunan court sentenced Chen Yongzhou, a former journalist with a Guangzhou-based newspaper, New Express, to 22 months in prison for defamation and bribery. Chen was detained last October and charged with "damaging the commercial reputation" of Zoomlion, a state-controlled construction equipment manufacturer, after he wrote reports accusing the firm of falsely inflating its profits and other financial problems. The Changsha-based company denied the allegations. Last year, New... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1620632/justice-will-not-served-until-all-zoomlion-culprits-are-held?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1620632/justice-will-not-served-until-all-zoomlion-culprits-are-held?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Oct 2014 08:45:00 +0000 Last week, the US filed criminal charges against five Chinese military officers for allegedly hacking into US companies to steal trade secrets. China reacted furiously, dismissing the charges as "groundless", suspending the work of a bilateral working group on cybersecurity, summoning US ambassador Max Baucus in protest, and threatening retaliation. Three days after the charges, Beijing announced its plan to impose security checks on information technology products and services of national... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1519859/common-threat-cyberespionage-drives-need-global-code-conduct?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1519859/common-threat-cyberespionage-drives-need-global-code-conduct?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 May 2014 20:28:04 +0000 China appears to be plagued by terrorism. Tuesday's knife assault at Guangzhou Railway Station was only the latest in a spate of violence that has left many Chinese shaken. Six people were injured in the assault, which came within a week of a major attack in Urumqi last Wednesday in which three people were killed, including the two suspects, and 79 others wounded. The two suspects in the Urumqi attack, who it was claimed had been involved in religious extremism for a long time, wielded knives... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1506527/china-must-rally-its-people-win-war-against-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1506527/china-must-rally-its-people-win-war-against-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 May 2014 20:28:46 +0000 President Xi Jinping began his first trip to Europe as China's top leader by taking part in the Third Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague last week. The aim of the third world summit, like its two predecessors, was to prevent nuclear terrorism around the globe. Nuclear terrorism continues to be one of the most challenging threats to international security, something that was agreed upon and reaffirmed at the two previous summits, in Washington and Seoul. Indeed, a single act can destroy a large... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1461060/china-must-play-its-part-preventing-nuclear-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1461060/china-must-play-its-part-preventing-nuclear-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Mar 2014 20:09:37 +0000 Despite a full-scale multinational search-and-rescue operation, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, remains missing. The Chinese government and its people are particularly frustrated with the slow progress of the investigation, because almost two-thirds of the passengers came from China. After the mysterious disappearance, reports emerged that two Europeans listed on the passenger manifest were not aboard. The exposure immediately raised... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1447665/missing-malaysian-flight-shows-fake-travel-documents-pose?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1447665/missing-malaysian-flight-shows-fake-travel-documents-pose?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Mar 2014 04:30:30 +0000 Recent reports revealed that several city and county governments in Henan province had established so-called "reprimand centres" to detain petitioners. Following a public outcry, Henan's provincial authorities promised to carry out a thorough investigation and close the illegal centres. The centres were criticised for their revival of the controversial "re-education through labour" system, which the National People's Congress Standing Committee formally abolished in December, a move widely... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1440065/henan-officials-must-be-held-account-their-reprimand-centres?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1440065/henan-officials-must-be-held-account-their-reprimand-centres?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Mar 2014 11:00:30 +0000 Guangdong authorities' heavy-handed action against the sex trade in Dongguan , dubbed China's "capital of sex", has raised concerns about the execution of the wider campaign against vice that is now under way. In law, prostitution has been banned in the People's Republic since its founding in 1949. In practice, however, the "world's oldest profession" exists everywhere, especially in the country's economically developed regions. Prior to the crackdown, Dongguan authorities seemed reluctant to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1429664/chinas-anti-vice-crackdown-must-remain-within-law?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1429664/chinas-anti-vice-crackdown-must-remain-within-law?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Feb 2014 10:15:15 +0000 Late last month, it was reported that the academic committee of Shanghai's Fudan University had finished its second investigation into the plagiarism accusations against Wang Zhengmin, a professor of otology there. Fudan stood by its previous findings that the claims of academic misconduct are untenable. Wang is also an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a prestigious body of Chinese scientists. Since 2012, there have been accusations that he plagiarised others in his bid for... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1424571/fraud-academia-killing-chinas-nobel-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1424571/fraud-academia-killing-chinas-nobel-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Feb 2014 18:45:15 +0000 On January 2, a senior Chinese official, Tong Mingqian, was reported to have been sacked and expelled from the Communist Party for his role in an electoral scandal in Hengyang , Hunan province. A total of 518 delegates of the city's 529-member People's Congress were found to have taken bribes for electing 56 delegates to the provincial assembly. Three other delegates were accused of neglect of duty. The crackdown was part of China's ongoing anti-corruption campaign initiated by the Communist... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1409696/china-cannot-rush-reforms-needed-democratise-its-legislative?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1409696/china-cannot-rush-reforms-needed-democratise-its-legislative?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Jan 2014 14:01:05 +0000 At the end of 2013, terrorist violence befell both China and Russia. On December 30, nine assailants armed with knives and homemade explosives attacked a police station in Yarkand, a county administered by Kashgar prefecture in Xinjiang . During the clash, eight attackers were shot dead; one was captured. Also on December 30, a suicide bombing occurred on a crowded trolleybus in the city of Volgograd in southern Russia, a day after a suicide bomber launched an attack at the city's main train... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1399064/americas-double-standards-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1399064/americas-double-standards-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Jan 2014 14:30:30 +0000 Kim Jong-un's uncle by marriage and the former No 2 man in North Korea, Jang Song-thaek, was executed this month for his "anti-party and counter-revolutionary crime" or, in other words, plotting to overthrow the supreme leader, Kim. He was also charged with a long list of other offences ranging from corruption to womanising, from gambling to distributing pornography, from drug use to half-hearted applause for young Kim's promotion. In a viciously worded report, North Korea's state media... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1391039/north-korean-purge-reminder-chinas-progress-cultural?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1391039/north-korean-purge-reminder-chinas-progress-cultural?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Dec 2013 20:49:23 +0000 The Communist Party is considering reducing the use of its shuanggui interrogation system in favour of strengthening the role of prosecutors in its anti-corruption campaign. Shuanggui, literally "double designations", is a secretive disciplinary measure that the party uses to investigate members suspected of corruption. The legal basis of the measure dates back to an administrative regulation, issued by the central government in 1990, which authorised administrative supervisory departments at... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1374674/china-must-scrap-brutal-disciplinary-measure-war-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1374674/china-must-scrap-brutal-disciplinary-measure-war-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Dec 2013 11:30:45 +0000 Last week, an SUV careered along a pavement in front of the portrait of Mao Zedong to the north of Tiananmen Square, ploughed into a crowd and burst into flames, killing three occupants in the car and two pedestrians, and injuring some 40 other people. After two days of silence, the authorities said it was a terrorist attack that had been "carefully planned, organised and premeditated" by several people from Xinjiang . The perpetrators had been identified as the three occupants of the car, Usmen... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1347357/escalation-terrorist-violence-must-push-beijing-address-root?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1347357/escalation-terrorist-violence-must-push-beijing-address-root?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Nov 2013 10:30:45 +0000 The case of Nie Shubin has returned to the spotlight of public opinion. Nie was executed in 1995 for raping and murdering a woman in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. In early 2005, the detained serial killer Wang Shujin, in a surprise confession, admitted to the Shijiazhuang crime for which Nie had been blamed. In Wang's first-instance trial in 2007, he was sentenced to death for three rape and murder cases. But Wang appealed to the Hebei provincial court, arguing for leniency on account of his... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1282577/chinas-courts-must-face-their-own-errors?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1282577/chinas-courts-must-face-their-own-errors?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The case of Zhu Ling has hit the headlines again recently. Zhu was a promising chemistry student at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University before she was left paralysed after being poisoned with thallium, a toxic chemical, nearly two decades ago. The renewed interest in her tragic case was ignited by a similar poisoning case in April that led to the death of a Fudan University student. In Zhu's case, initial suspicion fell on one of her roommates, Sun Wei. In 1995, police in Beijing detained... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1252146/presumed-guilty-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1252146/presumed-guilty-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The provincial court of Zhejiang recently reversed its 2004 verdict of a suspended death sentence for Zhang Hui and a 15-year prison term for his uncle Zhang Gaoping on charges of rape and murder. The two were cleared due to the inadequacy of the previous evidence and admission of new evidence. They had spent 10 years behind bars. Shortly afterwards, the Zhejiang police publicly apologised to the pair and their family for botching the investigation. Zhejiang's political-legal commission, a party... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1230704/china-must-stop-extracting-confessions-through-use-torture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1230704/china-must-stop-extracting-confessions-through-use-torture?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The bomb explosions that rocked the Boston Marathon killed three people and wounded some 180 others, and were reportedly the worst attack on US soil since the September 11 strikes. US authorities now consider the violence an act of terrorism, and identified brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the sons of Chechen refugees, as the bombers. Americans were not the only casualties of the Boston attack. Two Chinese students at Boston University who were there to watch the race also fell victim to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1220766/use-law-not-war-tackle-terror?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1220766/use-law-not-war-tackle-terror?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 On March 26, the news website Tianshan, run by the Xinjiang regional government, reported that local courts had sentenced 20 men to jail terms of up to life imprisonment for promoting terrorism and inciting secession. Of these, 19 individuals in four groups were found guilty of organising, leading or participating in terrorist organisations. The groups were accused of spreading multimedia materials related to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, both... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1214554/media-censorship-terrorism-chinese-soil-only-feeds-rumours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1214554/media-censorship-terrorism-chinese-soil-only-feeds-rumours?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The case of Li Guanfeng, the 17-year-old son of the prominent People's Liberation Army singing artist Li Shuangjiang, is hitting the headlines again. A defence lawyer publicised a sternly worded statement last month, appealing to the public to respect the rights of his client, who has been detained, with four others, on suspicion of gang rape. The statement reaffirmed the junior Li's status as a juvenile, condemned the ongoing "media trial" and dismissed the rumours circulating about the case.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1204074/beijing-must-ensure-peoples-right-privacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1204074/beijing-must-ensure-peoples-right-privacy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Public discussion remains intense on the high-profile incident involving 17-year-old Li Guanfeng, who was detained with four others by police in Beijing last month for allegedly taking part in a gang rape. Li does not come from an ordinary family: his father is Li Shuangjiang, a senior military official famous for singing patriotic songs. This is not the first time Li Jnr, formerly known as Li Tianyi, has been in trouble. In September 2011, he attacked a couple after his unlicensed BMW crashed... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1189317/why-justice-must-be-seen-be-done-child-privilege-rape-case?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1189317/why-justice-must-be-seen-be-done-child-privilege-rape-case?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000