Charles Xue: Arrested for Prostitution, Confesses to Spreading Rumors Online

Charles Xue, the venture capitalist arrested earlier this month for prostitution, has appeared on Chinese TV confessing to the heinous crime of spreading rumors online.  While it hasn't been made especially clear why he's confessed to something that he never was arrested for, the state broadcaster is typically making an example of the unfortunate Xue, who is also known as Xue Manzi.

Commanding an online following of nearly 12 million on Weibo, Xue said that "My irresponsibility in spreading information online was a vent of negative mood, and was a neglect of the social mainstream," adding that "freedom of speech cannot override the law.".  Of course, when freedom of speech is technically written into the law, as it is in the Chinese constitution, it's become increasingly clear as the Big V crackdown continues unabated that there's no such thing in practice.

Under new legislation, if a rumor, say something like "Xi Jin Ping smokes the big one" gets viewed 5000 times, or reposted 500 times a potential maximum sentence of three years in jail can be bestowed upon the guilty party.  There's no word yet on what the punishment would be for anything, with, say 499 retweets, or 4999 visits.

Confessions made by arrested perps are a useful tool in reinforcing the idea that the Chinese police know what the hell they're doing.  The recent parading on TV of detained foreign businessmen confessing to what Chinese businessmen get away with before they've had their coffee in the morning is a relatively new development.  Along with the new laws regarding online behavior, legal experts have said that the confessions broadcast live to the nation make a mockery of the already pisspoor Chinese legal system.

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Pan Shiyi Very Very Nervously Backs Beijing's Big V Crackdown.

The high profile arrests of Charles Xue, Wang Gongquan and Dong Shiru seem to be having the desired effect on promient "Big V" microbloggers in the Chinese blogosphere.

After lobbying the government to release more accurate data about the terrible air quality in the capital, real estate tycoon Pan Shiyi is getting a bit nervous that he might be next.  What better course of action than to publicly back the crackdown?  Going on the PR offense, an TV spot was duely booked.  Interviewed on CCTV about the new rules, whereby a sentence of three years in the clink can be handed down to anyone who posts a rumour that is reposted 5000 times, Pan seemed to suddenly have developed a stutter. 

Not usually camera shy, as this promo video for Johnnie Walker shows, Pan seemed a little unsure of how to answer the reporters questions - the pressure of a firing squad loading their guns off camera possibly contributing.  Mocking messages were posted on the very platform that he spoke out about, but a couple of messages of sympathy were left for him - it's difficult to remain composed if you're being interviewed by a police officer on camera.