A popular mainland Chinese blogger, who has been detained since Feb. 20 after questioning official accounts of deadly border clashes with India last year, was arrested on a newly minted offense of “dishonoring heroes or martyrs.”

The crime of “dishonoring heroes or martyrs” was passed into law by the Supreme People’s Court last Friday. It came into effect on Monday, the same day Nanjing authorities ordered the arrest of blogger Chou Ziming, who has 2.5 million followers on his Sina Weibo account.

The former journalist has been detained since Feb. 20 after he commented on his blog that Chinese officials might have understated the number of People’s Liberation Army soldiers killed in the bloody melee last June.

China had been silent on its casualties up until Feb. 19, when it revealed that four soldiers died in the conflict. The death toll was given out as part of a ceremony, and an extensive propaganda campaign that followed, to honor PLA soldiers.

Chou was accused of ridiculing mainland soldiers in two comments he posted online, which had a bad impact on society, according to Nanjing prosecutors.

At least four other people have been arrested for questioning the official account of last year’s border clash.

Mainland authorities were circling around Wang Jingyu, a teenager who lives in the United States, over his criticisms of the Chinese military in the conflict, according to Voice of America.

In recent telephone calls, Wang said mainland police told him that they had the means to bring him to the mainland. They warned that his parents in the central city of Chongqing would suffer “bad consequences” if he failed to turn himself in within three days, the report said.

Wang’s parents were earlier harassed by mainland police, who threatened to cause them to lose their jobs. Their home was also kept under round-the-clock watch by the authorities, VOA said.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play