Woman arrested for insulting earthquake-hit region’s residents on Weibo

A woman was detained Wednesday for insulting people of the northeast on Sina Weibo after an earthquake of 5.7 magnitude hit Northeast China’s Jilin Province on Monday.

The quake struck Ningjiang district in Songyuan at 1:50 am and damaged the residences of more than 4,000 households with no casualties.

The 44-year-old woman, surnamed Fu, lives in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. She posted a comment about the earthquake, saying “why the earthquake was not stronger so that more ‘northeastern dogs’ would die … they are descendants of the Japanese,” news website youth.cn reported.

The three northeastern provinces, including Jilin, were under Japan’s control during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression(1931-45). Japan established a Manchurian puppet state (1932 – 1945) in the region.

Cyber police of Wuxi identified the suspect and took her away for interrogation with the help of Jilin police. Fu admitted her mistake. The Public Security Bureau in Jiangsu Province’s Jiangyin city, where Fu was born, put her into criminal detention on Wednesday for provoking disturbance to public order, according to the announcement by Wuxi cyber police.

Wuxi cyber police warned citizens to be aware that cyberspace is within judicial reach and online comments that harm the healthy development of cyberspace violate the law.