China passes a new, stricter law against criticism of its forces

China has passed a new law banning defamatory remarks against military personnel as the country tries to weed out comments critical of the armed forces, many of which were made on social media in the context of the India-China border conflict.

The new law will add to the arsenal of existing legal measures under a 2018 legislation that says any individuals or groups defaming or slandering martyrs’ names, portraits or reputation will be punished and held criminally responsible.

It was under the existing legislation that a popular Chinese blogger was given an eight-month jail sentence for posting comments considered slanderous against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers who were killed in last year’s clash with the Indian Army at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh.

The new law was passed by China’s rubber stamp Parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), on Thursday.

“No organisation or individual may in any way slander or derogate the honour of servicemen, nor may they insult or slander the reputation of members of military forces,” the new legislation said, according to a report by the state news agency Xinhua.

The Xinhua report said that the new law allows prosecutors to act if the slander seriously affects soldiers’ “performance and missions”. It also banned the desecration of plaques in honour of military personnel.

“Prosecutors can file public interest litigation in cases of defamation of military personnel and the infringement on their legitimate rights and interests that have seriously affected their performance of duties and missions and damaged the public interests of society,” the new law states.

Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor and Hong Kong-based military affairs commentator, said the legislation which also covers families of service personnel was meant to bolster the Chinese army’s sense of mission.

“Previously, our legal instruments were not complete and this new law will provide more comprehensive protection for the rights and honours of our soldiers,” Song told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Chinese state media listed several cases of perceived defamation – many involving PLA’s deadly clash with the Indian Army in 2020 – that may have hastened the passage of the law that was put up to the NPC in April.

In a separate case, a 63-year-old man detained by the “…Beijing police after he was found to have slandered martyr Wang Wei and insulted Wang’s wife in a WeChat group earlier in April. Wang was a Chinese air force pilot who died when his fighter jet collided with a US military reconnaissance aircraft in the South China Sea in 2001,” a state media report said.

So far, Beijing has admitted that four of its soldiers died in the fierce hand-to-hand combat between the Indian and the Chinese armies on June 15, 2020, in Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the clash, which was the most serious military conflict between the two sides in over four decades.