Happiness Street singer released after detention for bomb post
Staff Reporter 2013-08-02 17:55
Wu Hongfei. (Photo/CNS)
Wu Hongfei, lead singer of Chinese indie rock band Happiness Street, has been released after being detained for ten days for saying online that said she wanted to bomb Beijing's housing and urban planning authorities, according to state broadcaster China National Radio.
On July 21, Wu said in a microblog post, "The place I want to bomb is the residents' committee of Beijing Talents Exchange Service Center and the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. I don't know what the commission is and what it does. I will block anyone who befriends these bureaus. The person I want to bomb are the so-called good person who absolutely have no ethics. I'm not a fool so I'm not telling you his name. You will know after he was bombed and on the news."
The post was published nine hours after a man in a wheelchair named Ji Zhongxing set off a small bomb near an exit at Beijing Capital International Airport on July 20. Ji detonated the bomb after being denied in his petition to seek justice for an incident in 2005 in which Guangdong public security officials beat him, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Wu also posted another message soon after the first: "I want to bomb... the chicken wings, fries and buns at the McDonald's beside the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development."
The singer was detained by police after the posts for making a fake terrorist threat, a crime that can carry a penalty of up to five years in jail. Wu's lawyers Li Jinxing and Chen Jiangang said her posts should not be considered a crime since most of readers would understand she was only venting her anger.
The lawyers went to Chaoyang police station to meet their client on Thursday but were told that she had been transferred to a detention center, where they met up later. Wu said she has signed documents relating to her sentence and would be released after serving a ten-day administrative detention between July 23 and Aug. 2 and paying a 500-yuan (US$96) fine, according to the Chinese-language Beijing Times.
A 25-year-old man in Yinchuan in northwestern China's Ningxia province was later detained for mimicking the singer's action by posting a message that reads: "I want to bomb the Beijing subway" and "Let's blow up Tiananmen Square. Carry a bomb on your shoulder. Find a crowded place. Going to Beijing tomorrow." The post did not gather much attention nor was it reposted but it was spotted by local police, according to the state newswire Xinhua.
The man, surnamed Li, was taken into custody on Thursday afternoon. He told police he wrote the post in protest against the treatment of the singer. Local police said Li has been detained for posting messages that compromise social security.
