Sent to Labor Camp for a Tweet

by Liz Colville

A Chinese woman has been sentenced to a year in a labor camp after retweeting a message about Chinese protesters destroying Japanese products in a demonstration. The original tweet was written by her fiancé, and suggested the protesters should also vandalize Japan’s pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. The woman, Cheng Jianping, retweeted it, adding, “Charge, angry youth.” Her fiancé, Hua Chunhui, was also arrested, but has since been released. He was never told what had happened to Cheng, but found out from her family. Cheng has a lawyer who comprehends the idiocy of being sent to jail for being satirical, so things are looking up. And if I disappear later today, um, yeah.