An RTL Case Revoked in Chongqing Secretly

• Author: China Law Digest

Peng Hong was confronted with an unexpected incident in September 2009. After he reposted an anti-mafia comic entitled “Umbrella” and commented, “This umbrella is rather strange,” a dialogue immediately popped up at the lower right corner of his computer screen requesting him to turn himself in to the Cyber Security Police Task Force of the City’s Public Security Bureau. Peng Hong was subsequently sentenced to RTL (reeducation through labor) for two years. On September 10, 2012, Peng Hong received, from the Chongqing City Re-education-through-Labor Committee, a written revocation of his sentence on the ground that the incident was “mishandled.”

Pu Zhiqiang of the Beijing Huayi Attorney Office, who has paid close attention to the case, said that three years ago was the heyday of former Chongqing leader Bo Xilai’s revival...