Authorities in China have detained at least five people across the country for posting derogatory comments online about Yuan Longping, who died at the weekend at the age of 90 after developing a number of hybrid rice strains that revolutionized agriculture.

Police in Beijing detained a netizen with the handle @nanwangshanxia on May 22, the day of Yuan's death from organ failure, after they posted comments judged disrespectful of Yuan on the social media platform WeChat, according to an official Weibo post.

The person is being held under criminal detention by the Chaoyang district police.

Police in Rizhao city in the eastern province of Shandong detained an 18-year-old man surnamed Jia on the same day, after he posted critical comments on Weibo following a spate of state media coverage lauding Yuan as the "father of hybrid rice."

Yuan, who died on May 22, had received the "Order of the Republic" as part of an honor system set up under ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping for his contributions to agriculture.

China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), passed a law in 2018 criminalizing anyone deemed to have smeared the "reputation and honor" of the ruling party's canon of heroes and martyrs.

The law, which came into effect on May 1, 2018 aims to "protect the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs."

It bans "insults or slander" of heroes and martyrs, as well as any damage to memorials of revolutionary martyrs or heroic deeds.

Mobilizing state powerMeanwhile, a social media user surnamed Li was detained in the northern port city of Tianjin, a social media user surnamed Wang was detained in the southeastern port of Xiamen, while a user with the handle @shiwaitaoyuan was detained in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Those detained had "posted insulting comments along the lines of 'dead at last' online," the Beijing police report said, without giving specific details of the posts.

All detained users had posted comments voicing approval at Yuan's death.

All Weibo accounts belonging to the detainees were shut down, Weibo said in a statement.

Independent journalist Liu Quan said the punishments were likely being meted out under the new laws governing "insults" to revolutionary heroes-RFA

https://www.crimeandmoreworld.com/china-holds-social-media-users-over-insults-to-hybrid-rice-hero/

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