MAO FANATICS GET PRISON TERMS FOR TAINTING LEADERS

Group head, who has yet to be tried, says he has ‘no regrets’, but analyst warns sentencing shows Beijing will not tolerate any troublemakers

Five Mao fanatics who ran an internet rumour mill have been sentenced by a court on the mainland for circulating articles which “smeared former state leaders” but their ringleader, who awaits trial, remained defiant despite the sentencing.

The people’s court of Xinhua district in Pingdingshan, Henan province, sentenced two men and three women late last month to jail terms ranging from nine months to two years on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, according to a verdict obtained by the Post.

“Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” is a broadly worded criminal charge covering offences such as public disorder and hooliganism, and is also often used by police to muzzle political dissent.

Articles circulated by the group said they had attacked the late paramount leader Deng

Xiaoping and other reformist leaders for betraying Mao’s revolutionary ideals.

The verdict said they had trafficked more than 100 articles on dozens of WeChat accounts between late 2020 and April last year and profiteered from readers’ tips and advertisements – a common way of making money online on the mainland.

The verdict called them “a gang of evil forces who worked under the name of the Red Culture Association to promote what they called ‘red culture’”.

The five were identified as Zhang Zhijing and Yu Chaoquan, both 31; Qiu Pinghui and her younger sister Pinqin; and student Huang Xiaochun, who turned 20 on Monday. Yu Yixun, the leader who is on bail and under residential surveillance – a form of home detention – is awaiting trial separately.

Yu Yixun, a 31-year-old high school dropout from Fujian, said he had no regrets about his and his group’s actions.

“I read a lot of articles online … and have developed this adoration of Mao Zedong’s thoughts, and a strong attraction to socialism in Mao’s era,” Yu told the in a

Post

telephone interview.

“So I have begun to understand and learn more about Mao Zedong … and made friends with a few young people who love red culture,” he said, referring to leftist ideas.

“I feel proud of what I did … and it would be an honour if I have to go to jail for promoting Mao’s thoughts, which are about equality for everyone and [are] being embraced by a lot of people now.”

Deng Yuwen, a former editor of Times, an official organ of

Study

the Communist Party’s top academy, said the sentencing showed that Beijing would not tolerate ultra-leftists if they went too far and their actions were deemed to be destabilising before the party’s all-important national congress, due to be held later this year.

“It’s very clear that Beijing would not allow the ultra-leftists, or the liberals, to undermine the regime’s stability,” said Deng, who is now based in the United States and is an independent researcher on China’s politics.