Chinese Social Media Influencer Forced to Confess on TV

A Chinese social media influencer with millions of followers was recently arrested by Chinese authorities for questioning the Chinese soldiers’ death toll in the Sino-India border conflict in 2020. He was forced to make a “confession” on China’s state-run national TV.

On Mar. 1, the Nanjing Procuratorate announced on its official social media WeChat account that it approved the arrest of Qiu Ziming, the owner of the account named “Spicy pen small ball” on the Chinese social media Weibo, for “belittling and ridiculing the heroes and martyrs defending the border” and “causing a negative social impact.”

Qiu was detained by local police on Feb. 20.

Also on Mar. 1, the Supreme Procuratorate of China posted Qiu’s “confession” footage on its official media Procuratorate Daily. State-run CCTV also broadcasted Qiu’s one-minute “confession” that evening.

In the video, Qiu was wearing prisoner’s clothes. He called his behavior “annihilating conscience” and said he felt “very regretful” for questioning the official death toll of Chinese soldiers from the Sino-India border clash.

The worst conflict in 45 years broke out between Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Galwan Valley, Ladakh region in the Himalayas in June 2020. At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the clash. Last month, the Chinese regime announced that “4 soldiers died and 1 regiment commander was seriously injured” in the conflict.

Chinese netizens expressed skepticism about the death toll and the delay in releasing the information. A number of netizens have been arrested for questioning the official numbers on social media.

Qiu, who has more than 2.4 million followers, published two posts. Qiu expressed sarcasm: “Only the highest rank Chinese official there—the regimental commander has survived. … Anyway, we won.”

Qiu’s other post raised suspicion about the official death toll: “Look at it carefully, and the four died all because of going there to ‘rescue.’ Even the people who went to rescue all died. Then the people who needed rescue died. It means that the four people were not the only ones killed in the battle. This is also the reason why India dared to release the number and names of the dead the first time. In India’s view, they won with less casualties.”

On Feb. 10, the state-run Russian TASS news agency reported that 45 Chinese servicemen died in the clash.

Yao Cheng, a former Chinese naval officer, told Chinese-language radio Sound of Hope on Feb. 23 that his China information channelscounted the tombs of the dead soldiers and reported to him that more than 40 Chinese soldiers had died in the clash.

“Some [of my information channels] told me that the death toll is 42. I think this number is a... (Read more)

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