Chinese Twitter Supporter of 'Uncle Xiaobo' Arrested

It has been reported that police in China seized a woman from her home in Chongqing at approximately 2:30pm on the 26th October. Mou Yanxi, a freelance designer, was apprehended by the authorities in response to a Tweet made by the young designer regarding planned anti-Japanese protest in Chongqing.

Mou is said to have outlined her intention to unfurl a banner reading “Congratulations, Uncle Xiaobo!” The tweet which led to her arrest said:

"If there is really an anti-Japanese demonstration in Chongqing, I will carry a banner saying 'Congratulations, Uncle Xiaobo!' "

Recent hostility between the two nations has developed following a maritime dispute, and has provided a platform for protesters to vent any unrelated grievances, such as the imprisonment of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. The rally which formed the subject of Mou's Tweet went ahead on Tuesday, and was attended by some 2,000 people according to a Telegraph report.

A fellow blogger in Chongqing, Zhang Shijie, told The Guardian that he believes that Mou Yanxi was detained as a direct result of her Tweeting activity, and warned that:

"If such behaviour goes on, it will eventually happen to all of us."

Zhang also revealed that police had warned him to be careful when blogging, and to avoid the Chongqing rally.

This protest is the latest in a long series of rallies which have been taking place across the country. In national reports of the protests, Chinese media has focused on the patriotic aspects of the Chinese people, marching to a war memorial marking the death of Chinese soldiers at the hands of the Japanese, whilst the authorities are doing their utmost to downplay the influence of the disillusioned, dissonant members of society who have appropriated the marches for the expression of their own discontents.

In an obvious attempt to convince outsiders of the levels of expression afforded to the Chinese public, an article was published yesterday on the People's Daily website entitled; “It Is An Unquestionable Fact That Chinese People Have Freedom of Expression and Press”. The article, which suggests the plethora of media publications on TV, in print and online, does not cover the absolute censorship which dictates such media output.

Such a programme of censorship and paranoia informs any Chinese political discourse, and is set to do so in the upcoming G20 summit in Seoul. 15 Nobel Peace laureates have urged world leaders to use this gathering as a platform from which to question China's oppression of anti-state opinion, and the arrest of Liu Xiaobo.