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李正源李刚 (Li Zhengyuan; Li Gang / Lǐ Zhèngyuán Lǐ Gāng) are the names of two unrelated people named Li who were both involved in scandals involving drunk driving, censorship, and attempted abuses of power. In addition to the similarities in names and other parallels, both cases showed the growing power of social media as a tool for correcting injustices.

Li Zhengyuan, the son of Taiyuan’s city’s police chief Li Yali, beat up a traffic cop in Oct 2012. Zhengyuan had been pulled over by a traffic cop (交警 / jiāojǐng), Xia Kun (夏坤) for drunk driving, at which point he assaulted the officer in front of multiple eyewitnesses, who posted evidence of the beating online. He was not arrested and instead was escorted home by other police officers. A cover-up followed, with surveillance footage deleted and a blackout on reporting of the incident. Zhengyuan’s father, Li Yali, was eventually found to be responsible for the cover-up in addition to selling positions on the police force, and was removed from his post in Dec 2012.

Li Gang is the name of a deputy police chief whose son, Li Qiming, was involved in a hit-and-run. In Oct 2010, Qiming drunkenly drove into and killed a rollerblading college student on Hebei University’s campus grounds. He drove away and when security officers caught up to them, he sought to escape punishment by declaring “My father is Li Gang!”—assuming this gave him immunity. After this was reported, outraged internet users tracked down Qiming, turning him and his brazen declaration into a meme and symbol of injustice in Chinese society. Authorities tried—and failed—to control the increasing outrage by censoring the event, and in the end Qiming was sentenced to six years in prison.

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64屠城 (June 4 massacre / 64 túchéng) refers to the crackdown on the student-led protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. After months of demonstrations in the heart of Beijing and much internal infighting about how to handle the protesters, authorities decided to send in tanks and troops to quell the “disorder.” Even though according to recent revelations, there wasn’t actually much blood spilled on the square itself, hundreds or thousands were still killed (the exact figure is debated) that night across the city. These victims are commemorated every year on June 4 in Chinese diasporic communities around the world—most notably in Hong Kong which holds an annual memorial in Victoria Park. However, such remembrances are strongly discouraged on the mainland and every year there is a marked increase in censorship around the date.

屠城 is an interesting phrase in that it generally refers to massacres that take place in cities—typically the killing of civilians in a captured city by military forces. The Nanjing Massacre of 1937 (also known as the Rape of Nanking) is perhaps the most notable recent 屠城 in Chinese history; others include the Yangzhou Massacre and the three massacres in Jiading in 1645.

打黑 + 薄 (smash the black / dǎhēi + the surname for Bo Xilai / bó) is a reference to Bo Xilai’s 2009-2011 campaign to rid the city of Chongqing of organized crime. In Chinese, it’s known as “重庆打黑除恶专项行动” (literally, Chongqing’s fight against illegal activities and elimination of evil forces special operation) and it’s also referred to as the Chongqing gang trials in English.

Why it is blocked: Chongqing is a sprawling major city in China’s interior, home to nearly 30 million people in an area the size of South Carolina. Before Bo Xilai’s arrival in Chongqing as party secretary (the de facto head of the city), organized crime was endemic in the city, with gangs running illegal underground activity and bribing police and government officials at all levels.

When Bo took office, he vowed to tackle organized crime and corruption and gave his police chief, Wang Lijun great latitude in attacking the problem.Thousands were arrested and Bo was celebrated for his seemingly successful triad busting. However, numerous questions have arisen about the way those arrests and convictions were made, with the most notorious being the case of Li Zhuang. Li, a much respected lawyer, defended some of those arrested in the crackdown, earning the wrath of authorities. One of whose clients was forced to falsely testify against him in an obvious frameup, and Li was convicted and imprisoned.

Since then of course, Bo and his police chief have experienced a spectacular fall from grace and the afterglow of busting the triads has been lost amid stories about tortured witnesses and false confessions. It was claimed that Bo and his associates even extorted rivals by threatening to target them next. Bo was recently convicted and sentenced to life in prison for numerous crimes, including those related to his handling of the crackdown in Chongqing, and Wang Lijun was sentenced to 15 years for abuse of power in his role in the campaign.

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