Chinese netectives on the case for justice

MILLIONS of Chinese are turning into online crime campaigners, pressuring police to reopen investigations into a shocking poisoning.

Zhu Ling

MILLIONS of Chinese are turning into online crime campaigners, pressuring police to reopen investigations into a shocking poisoning that left a woman paralysed and the main suspect uncharged.

A massive campaign has now started on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, to have police and authorities re-examine Zhu Ling's case before the 20-year statute of limitations kicks in next year.

Ms Zhu was a promising student at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1994 when she was poisoned with thallium.

It has been alleged Ms Zhu's university flatmate, Sun Wei, now known as Jasmine Sun, carried out the attack after she became jealous of the victim's social and love lives.

Ms Zhu was left blind and severely handicapped, and has been in the care of her parents for the past two decades.

Ms Sun now lives in the US and has never been charged over the attack that shocked China.

It has been claimed that Ms Sun's grandfather was a high-ranking Communist Party official, and that is why she was never investigated or charged.

Ms Sun was studying science at the university and is believed to be the only person who could have obtained thallium, a highly toxic metal.

The online campaign began last weekend when high-profile Chinese actress Yao Chen wrote on Weibo to her 45 million followers that the Zhu case needed to be re-opened.

"Nineteen years ago, the young Zhu Ling was poisoned and 19 years later, this name has again been poisoned," she said. Ms Zhu's supporters are now petitioning the White House to investigate her alleged attacker.

More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition on the White House website, but there has been no indication from the US as to whether it will begin investigations.

Chinese authorities have reacted in typical fashion by censoring the topic. Ms Sun's name and the word thallium were blocked in internet searches and on most social media platforms.

However, millions of Weibo users have been able to skirt the censors.

It was reported at the time of the poisoning that Ms Sun was questioned for eight hours before being released into her parents' care. The results of the questioning and the investigation were withheld from the victim's family. There were suggestions online this week that Ms Sun's grandfather called on China's then president Jiang Zemin for help in dismissing the case.

One supporter, Yu Nan, told The Weekend Australian there was growing support for Ms Zhu's attacker to be brought to justice.

"I have been concerned about the case for years," Mr Yu said.

"It is the third time a campaign has been launched online calling for justice. The past two were launched and then suppressed.

"There are hundreds of thousands of people who are concerned about her welfare. I have read hundreds of posts online in the past few years. The appearance of Weibo has helped spread publicity for her case."

Mr Yu said the government's response to try to shut down the case was typical, given the party's strict control of China.

"The authority's behaviour has greatly helped people's suspicions grow," he said.

"The government lives on covering up the truth."

Ms Zhu's parents are supporting the new campaign and said their daughter, who has the intellectual ability of a six-year-old, still requires constant care. "She only remembers she is 23 years old, she doesn't know what happened to her later," Mrs Zhu said this week.

"We have to wake up every two hours in the night to turn her over.

"There is no one else to take care of her like we do. We can't imagine how she will live if we pass away. We may have to take her with us then."

The case has even attracted the support of The Wall Street Journal, which this week wrote that it highlighted China's need for major legal reforms.

"Given that many other cases of official impunity that have been exposed since the advent of the internet, suspicions that police were told not to pursue the suspect are natural," the newspaper wrote.

"Public demands for justice show that the rule of law is a universal value that the Communist Party cannot resist forever."

The Zhu campaign also highlights the growing role that social media is playing in ensuring justice is delivered in China.

Weibo users organised a massive protest in inner Beijing this week after a 22-year-old woman jumped from the roof of a popular market after allegedly being gang raped.

Police claimed the death was suicide and closed the case just hours after her death. Hundreds of protesters then picketed the surrounding area demanding that police investigate the rape claims.

It was also revealed on Weibo this week that popular Chinese film director Zhang Yimou had violated China's strict one-child policy by having seven children.

The revelation prompted more criticism of the government's policy than of Mr Zhang.