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Chinese Netizen Arrested for Posting Simple Comments

Published: November 5, 2021
Last year, the well-known food chef, Chinese Youtuber Wang Gang, on the anniversary of the death of Mao Anying day, uploaded an egg fried rice tutorial.
Last year, the well-known food chef, Chinese Youtuber Wang Gang, on the anniversary of the death of Mao Anying day, uploaded an egg fried rice tutorial. (Image: courtesy of Secret China)

On Oct. 9, a mainland Chinese netizen was sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention by the Nanchang Public Security Bureau for allegedly posting insulting remarks about anti-American volunteers. The netizen “Zuo You Der You You” posted a message on Sina Weibo: “the biggest success of the Cold War is egg fried rice, thanks to egg fried rice.”

A so-called ‘patriotic’ communist Chinese movie “Changjin Lake” with the theme of “anti-American aid” was a hit during the November holiday. It generated billions of dollars in box office revenue and sent netizens to “detention.” On Wednesday, Oct. 6, Luo Changping, a senior Chinese financial media personality, was detained after he referred to the “ice sculpture company” in the drama as the “sand sculpture company” on Sina Weibo. 

A day later, Sina Weibo user “@Zuo You Der You You” posted a message: “The greatest achievement of the Cold War is the egg fried rice, thanks to the egg fried rice! Without egg-fried rice, netizens are no different from Cao County. Of course, the sad thing is that now there is not much difference either.”

In this part, “Cold War,” “egg fried rice,” and “Cao Xian” refer to the Korean War, Mao An Ying, and North Korea, respectively. It’s important to note that in Chinese, ‘Cold War’ and ‘Korean War’ sound the same. 

The netizen Zuo You Der You You was brought to the attention of the police at the New Construction Branch of Nanchang Public Security Bureau. On Friday, Oct. 8, the netizen Zuo You Der You was detained for ten days for “insulting comments about the martyrs of the anti-American volunteer army, causing bad influence.”

Similar things have happened many times before. The New York Times documented one incident: “Chinese Citizen Who Documented Wuhan Outbreak Falls Ill in Prison Hunger Strike. Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years for videos about the failures in handling the virus. She now weighs less than 90 pounds, her former lawyer says.”

In short, as long as a statement doesn’t make the CCP look good, it’s prohibited. WeChat netizen Mr. Mao was asked by a reporter how he felt about this, and his response was straightforward.

Mr. Mao said, “I am also concerned; at the moment I don’t even dare say “fried rice with egg,” as I received a notice.”

On Nov.  25, 1950, Mao Zedong’s son, Mao An Ying, was killed in an air raid by U.S. military aircraft in North Korea. For years, a version of the story has circulated in communist China that Mao ignored the military’s ban on cooking fried rice with eggs on fire at the camp. The U.S. military detected the camp’s location because of the cooking.

The staging of the Chinese film “Lake Changjin” has stirred up discussion about the U.S.-China war in North Korea. However, China’s Internet censorship authorities only allowed netizens to praise the film and banned negative comments. After publicly challenging the war, well-known media personality Luo Changping was criminally detained by the Public Security Bureau on suspicion of “infringing on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs.”