The following post by Sina Weibo user “Zhang Wen’s essays” (章文的文章) was deleted from the social media service sometime before 11:01AM today, December 22, 2015, after being live for approximately 150 minutes. The post expresses support for jailed rights lawyer and former CMP fellow Pu Zhiqiang (浦志强), who today was given a three-year suspended sentence after being found guilty of “inciting ethnic hatred” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” on the basis of posts he made to social media. [For more deleted posts visit the HKU Weiboscope, created by the Journalism & Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong.]
This post is just one among many commenting on the Pu Zhiqiang case that have been deleted in recent weeks.
A translation of the post follows:
We are waiting for the verdict! But no matter what the result, to my mind he is guilty of nothing.
等待判决中!不论判决结果怎样,他在我心目中都是无罪的。