In another case, netizens alleged that a 14-year-old girl was beaten to death, uploading a picture showing a young body lying apparently lifeless on the road.
Writing on Weibo, one user said, “The 14-year-old kid laying there is already dead. Her father was so grieved that he drove his car into the city government office. He was then badly beaten.” He added, “The mother put on white clothing and knelt in front of the shields of the riot police saying: ‘The earthquake did not kill her, but she died under the police truncheons.’”
Human Flesh Search
Two of the particularly enthusiastic riot police had their photographs taken and were mocked, with calls to harass them in real life. Netizens called them the “two bears,” and dug up their family backgrounds and names, posting them online.
One of them, identified as Liu Bo, was photographed running after a young girl with his truncheon raised. That photo was cropped and a Photoshop campaign started, where netizens cropped the running Liu chasing a variety of famous people, at well-known locations around the world, with his baton. His father’s work phone number was put online.
In Chinese Internet parlance, this background research and posting of individual information for the purpose of derision and humiliation is called a “human flesh search engine.” It was initially pioneered by nationalist Chinese seeking reprisal against other Chinese who did not toe the Party line on issues such as Tibet. In this case, it was flipped on the enforcers of the regime’s policies.
The other “bear,” Zhang Bin, was photographed raising his middle finger to the camera. He was harshly denounced by netizens who asked “Is this man a Chinese?”
Another wrote: “All Chinese people will remember you both.”
Shirking Responsibility
Internet users identifying themselves as actual PAP members at one point engaged in a heated argument about which brigade—Shifang, Mianyang, or Chengdu—was responsible for the tear gas and stun grenades that had been fired into the crowd, attempting to blame the other groups for the violence.
“Chengdu police firing on people? We wouldn’t even scold people. We just strictly carried out our orders,” one user, identifying himself as a Chengdu PAP member, wrote. He accused the police from Mianyang of firing the tear gas and stun grenades. “We Chengdu police hardly did anything, we didn’t fire one canister!”
Not Serving Your Kind
Attempts to avoid responsibility for violence against local residents in the context of a crackdown on a mass incident is highly unusual in China.
