Police in China arrested three people over the weekend for allegedly posting remarks online deemed “insulting” to late Chinese agronomist Yuan Longping, credited by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with curbing famine in the country.
“Two netizens, one in Beijing and another in North China’s Tianjin Municipality, were both found to have posted a number of insulting remarks about Yuan on Wechat [a Chinese social media platform] on Saturday [May 22], which were reported to police,” China’s state-run Global Times reported on May 23, one day after Yuan died at age 91.
“Those derogatory posts had caused ‘seriously bad’ impact on the society, according to a statement issued by police [sic]. Both people have been detained and an investigation is now underway,” the newspaper wrote.
“Another netizen who made a series of posts on Weibo insulting Yuan and three other Chinese academicians who passed away recently was also detained by local police in Xiamen [a city in], East China’s Fujian Province,” the Global Times added. Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website often likened to Twitter.
Sina Weibo officials issued a statement on May 24 saying the company had permanently shut down the accounts of 68 users “who were found to have ‘reported false information’ or ‘spread rumors, insults and attacks’ on Yuan.”
Chinese scientist Yuan Longping died on May 22 in the city of Changsha, located in China’s south-central Hunan province. Yuan was known worldwide for researching and developing higher-yield rice varieties. Yuan was a household name within China, where he was often referred to by the nickname “Father of Hybrid Rice.”
“Yuan Longping, the ‘Father of Hybrid Rice,’ discovered a genetic phenomenon in rice and then developed the technologies essential for breeding the first hybrid rice variety ever created,” according to the website of the World Food Prize, which Yuan won in 2004.
“Worldwide, a fifth of all rice now comes from species created by hybrid rice following Yuan’s breakthrough discoveries,” the U.K.-based science and research news site Phys.org reported on May 23.
“Millions” of people from across China mourned Yuan’s death over the weekend, according to the Global Times.
“Throughout Changsha in Central China’s Hunan Province, the chrysanthemums that are used to send condolences were sold out. In front of Mingyangshan Funeral Home, more than 100,000 people lined up in the rain to lay flowers in memory of Yuan Longping … The number of people continued to grow and stretched for several kilometers,” the newspaper reported on May 23.