Pursue across provincial lines
来自China Digital Space
跨省追捕 (kuā shěng zhuī bǔ): captured across provincial lines
This refers to the practice of local government agents traveling to another province to arrest a netizen for posting comments on the internet.
The phrase became popular after Wang Shuai was arrested in Shanghai for posting pictures that mocked the illegal taking of land by officials in Ningbao, Henan.
Wang’s post implied that local official took measures to ruin the land so that they would have to pay less money for land requisition. (Compensation for cultivated land is higher than that of abandoned land.) After Wang's arrest there was much public outcry. Eventually, the Henan provincial police chief apologized to Wang, who was later compensated for his ordeal.
After this case and other incidents of cross-provincial arrests (such as the case of Wu Baoquan), the phrase “captured across provincial lines” became a popular internet meme.
Many posts end half-jokingly with, “Please do not capture me across provincial lines,” or, “I don’t really understand what I just wrote; I just copied it from someone else, so don’t capture me across provincial lines.”
