Yesterday, a big V on Weibo disclosed that he got a surprise visit from police outside of the province he lives in at 5am in the morning. The reason? to make him delete a video he posted earlier.
As we saw in Newsletter 4, Long long time ago, there used to be lots of independent famous accounts on Weibo. They were verified with a mark of “V” next to their Weibo id. Because they were so influencial, people called them the big Vs.
That big V specializes in automobiles, has close to 900,000 fans. I checked his Weibo content, it is mostly videos involving cars or motorcycles.
On Jan 11th, he posted this video (reposted on Twitter). The video is very likely from a security camera in the truck. The video shows three cars chased the truck on the highway to stop it. It is supposedly in the night of Jan 2nd. It happened on the Panhai bridge, which is located in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province.
The comments on the screen of the video indicates that this happens often in that area, those cars stop trucks to rob the driver of money. Some alleged that the people on the cars are cops. All of these are just rumours.
The surprise visit from the police is what got people’s attention.
(rough translation) I am really mad. At 5 am, three police officers came to knock on my door, waking up my whole family. Come into my room to demand me to delete a Weibo post.
They drove a few hundred kilometers, did not ask the local police to contact me first (I know the police and they have my phone number and my Wechat), did not call me or send me a Wechat to make sure that I was home (of course they have my phone number and Wechat just like the local police), just showed up so early in the morning. What if I am not home?
The Weibo host lives in Zhuhai in Guangxi province. This cross-province police action (the police came from Guangdong province) happened in the past and is normally frown upon by the public. Because the correct procedure would be to issue an official request to the counterpart in the other province.
Chinese commented on Twitter: (english summary, not actual translation) when you report your case to them, the police often rejects it by claiming that they are lacking man powers. But this time, three police officer drove hundreds of km to delete a Weibo post? It seems that they have too much time and energy.
Others comment: if you are a big V, they only ask you to delete the post. If you are not famous, they could detain you. Because he is famous, he only got a warning.
(The netizens trying to help Liu Yukun are not famous, but they have some social status, eg., working in a law firm or government, they were just forced to delete their Weibo content and delete the account.)
Other comments: the Weibo V is powerful because he works for Huawei cars (I can’t verified this).
Regarding Huawei cars, there is media report Can Huawei reinvent itself as a successful car brand with its smartphone business still reeling from US trade sanctions? . In late december 2021, they (re)launched the AITO M5 hybrid car, powered by Huawei HarmonyOS. Relaunch, because Sokon, the carmaker behind the Seres brand announced it early december.
More comments: Seriously? The internet police could not just delete the post? They had to knock on your door?
Response1: They really act this way, because I experienced such thing. If it were not for the fact that I have severe heart problem, I would be taken by them.
Response2: It depends on the level of power. Only the central government has the power to delete posts. Local police can only come to your door to threaten you.
(You can read more comments in Chinese, on twitter.)
That big V with 600,000 fans came to repost the original post. She said, I am in Shenzhen, I welcome the police come to visit me. Please don’t forget to bring your PCR test results.
Many people commented, and one joked: what if their health code turned yellow and they have to stay in your home?
To be honest, I don’t know if she is naive (wanted to help), or has some strong background, or just want to get more followers (and hence naive, I guess)?
Today, the Weibo host posted an update around 1pm:
(rough translation): I just called the police department of the province. I don't know if they are off duty or too many phone calls jammed the line. I called four numbers and no one answered.
Meanwhile the city police call me. They apologized and explained the situation to me.
So, I will stop talking about the police visit that forced me delete my post. But I will still pay attention to the case in the video. I hope soon I can see the suspects in handcuffs and the police announcement.
Thanks to the support from the netizens. Thanks to the advice from Weibo big Vs.
I am not sure if there will be follow-up story on this. But I just learned that the melon of Wang Leehom and Lee Jinglei is not over yet. Lee just posted more yesterday. She said that despite the public apology Wang made, he was not taking his responsibilities seriously and was trying every way to use the children as props for PR. He said he wanted to see the kids but did not corrdinate with her according to the rules and showed up with his two employees (strangers to the kids) and a total stranger that Lee never saw. Wang demanded Lee to turn off the security camera outside the apartment door, and lied about the presence of a total stranger. Lee looked through the security camera and was shocked to see the stranger. Wang shook the door with forces trying to get into the apartment. The children were so scared that they started crying. So in the end, a chance for the kids to see their father turned into a crisis. Wang also leaked a recorded video call between the kids and him to starngers. Lee also said she was exhausted by the lies Wang and his people spread on social media. She asked Wang to grow up and protect the privacy of the children.