중국 경찰이 중국계 미국인 갑부 벤처캐피탈리스트이자 열렬한 블로거로 활동 중인 찰스 슈에를 매춘 혐의로 체포한 사실이 지난 일요일 밝혀졌다.
베이징 경찰이 공식 웨이보를 통해 60세 남성 슈에(중국명: 슈에 만쯔)와 한 22세 여성 체포 사실을 올렸다.
경찰은 “그 둘은 솔직히 매춘 혐의를 인정했다. 현재 그들은 구금 중이다”고 밝혔다.
슈에의 체포는 중국 정부가 최근 고위 간부의 직무 유기를 고발하고 인터넷에 허위 사실을 퍼트린 기자를 체포하는 등 영향력 있는 인터넷 사용자들의 온라인 활동 단속을 강화하는 와중에 이루어졌다.
슈에는 중국에서 가장 인기 있는 파워블로거 중 한 명으로, 개혁적인 발언으로 12만 팔로워를 끌어 모았고 구금 몇 시간 전까지도 중국의 트위터인 웨이보에 활발히 활동 중이었다. 그는 과거 환경 오염에 대해 진실을 요구하는 캠페인을 지지하거나 어린이 인신매매 문제를 제기하는 등의 활동을 펼쳐왔다.
(윤하연 인턴기자 / 코리아헤럴드)
<관련 영문 기사>
Chinese-American billionaire blogger held on 'sex charges’
China has arrested Chinese-American billionaire blogger Charles Xue, who has attracted 12 million followers with his reform-minded comments, for suspected involvement in prostitution, police said Sunday, as Beijing steps up controls on web users.
Venture capitalist Xue, one of the country's most popular bloggers, was detained by Beijing police Friday evening.
His arrest comes as authorities have been stepping up controls on the country's freewheeling web users in recent weeks.
Billionaire Xue is an avid blogger who posted his last message on China's hugely popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog site at 5:41pm Friday, hours before he was detained.
He has previously backed a campaign to release transparent details on pollution in China, and also highlighted the problem of child trafficking.
His detention dominated weibo discussion, with his Chinese name Xue Manzi the most searched phrase on Sunday.
Beijing police said on their verified weibo account they had arrested a 60-year-old man surnamed Xue and a 22-year-old female.
"The two of them candidly confessed about the fact of the prostitution.
They are currently under administrative detention," the statement said, adding that the arrest followed a tip-off from local residents.
It also emerged Sunday that a journalist had been detained for "fabricating rumours" after he made online accusations of wrongdoing against a former senior official in Chongqing, the megacity once headed by fallen politician Bo Xilai.
Police in Beijing said the journalist with the News Express tabloid, whom they identified only by his surname Liu, "has been put under criminal detention according to the law for fabricating and spreading rumours".
New Express journalist Liu Hu was handcuffed and taken away by police on Friday from his home in Chongqing, earlier Chinese media reports cited his wife as saying.
On his own weibo account, Liu last month accused Ma Zhengqi, a former Chongqing vice mayor, of dereliction of duty in the restructuring of a state-owned company in the city, leading to losses of dozens of millions of yuan (millions of dollars), the reports said.
"I call on the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and other authorities to immediately suspend Ma Qizheng's public office and start an investigation," he said, referring to the Communist Party's anti-corruption department.
Ma is now a deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
His action followed corruption allegations posted online by Wang Wenzhi, a journalist with the official Xinhua news agency, against the head of state-owned conglomerate China Resources.
Separately, the former deputy director of China's top economic planning agency Liu Tienan has been put under criminal investigation after a journalist at an influential business magazine accused him of improper business dealings late last year.
The arrests come after authorities told Internet celebrities with millions of online followers to "promote virtues" and "uphold law" online. (AFP)
