Below is a snapshot of the online outrage surrounding Article 73 of the new Criminal Procedure Law, which allows the authorities to detain individuals charged with “national security threats,” “terrorism” or large-scale bribery at undisclosed locations for up to six months. This “residential surveillance” clause was passed at the closing session of last week’s National People’s Congress.
Last April, Ai Weiwei was detained while boarding a flight from Beijing to Hong Kong. He was held secretly for 81 days before returning home. Article 73 legalizes this type of kidnapping.
Read more of the original Weibo posts here.
SellingCigarettes&Winemy_angel: If this criminal law article passes, the consequences are serious! Anyone could be detained because they “endangered national security.” Suddenly disappeared! Be careful making online comments! Where are human rights?
DesolateFogTheSoleReward: If Article 73 were to pass… immediately delete all microblogs, I’m scared.
AuthorJinManlou: March 14 will be the vote on changing Criminal Procedural Law. Article 73, Article 83, Article 188, endangering national security, secret detention, there will always be one that suits you. Now it’s the dark night of March 11. There’s still 48 hours. Repost! All the roads to North Korea are cast in silence! No one can escape!
YiChenSinaVerifiedByMe: What can you do in the name of national security? The answer is anything.
JiangnanMetropolisDailyLiuZuobao: One day you don’t come home from work. Your family, friends, classmates, co-workers–no one knows where you are. There’s not a single clue. The police courteously record a missing person report. Then one day, out of the blue, they send your family a bag of ashes. They say that because you were “harming national security” you were arrested. While in detention you died of a heart condition. It was natural. Keeping the body wasn’t convenient, so the government cremated you. This is not a fairy tale, this is the Criminal Procedure Law.
Size48Feet: More and more like the Nazis.
Golden800Million: Here’s a joke: A Chinese person is run over by the wheels of history. Before he can get to his feet, he finds out history’s backing up.
OpinionCOOZIC: I smell a conquered nation.
EmpireIsEmpty: They’re quickly burying political power.
CantChangeUsAgain: After the family hears the news they kneel before their government comrades and say, “Thanks to the Party and the government for covering the cost of the bullet for us!”
XiyePhoto: Article 73, Article 83, Article 188, endangering national security, secret detention. There will always be one that suits you.
BearTrainingCloud: You don’t go along with the global standards of civility advocated by the United Nations. Instead, you raise the possibility of secret detentions as the will of the nation. As China moves down the road toward an open society, an atmosphere of terror increases, everyone finds themselves in danger and the country’s image is damaged. This is the only significance of Article 73.
SongZude: Only when the people are safe is the nation safe! If there are no people, there is no nation. The kind of laws passed exemplifies the level of the government in power. Zude thinks: dictatorship is dangerous. Laws must be passed prudently!!!
HopeSilenceTurnsGood: There’s more than just the case of changes to Criminal Procedural Law. Draft Law 109: people with mental illness must be forcibly treated by the government.
IWantExtraordinary: Isn’t that all you have to do is disobey the government’s dictatorship to endanger national security?
Southerner’s Song: “Murder Me”
Please, quickly, secretly, arrest me and murder me
I don’t want to be a traitor, don’t want to sell my country
And don’t want to start anything violentYou won’t wear red when you come to get me
You’ll either wear black or gray
You’ve betrayed your color
You’ve bared your souls
Hopeless and cold, and I cannotCome on, quickly, kill me
I am ready
Use fresh blood to renew the color of life
Use death in place of the Sinful Motherland’s atonement–March 12, 2012
