Xu Lai just before the attack on Feb. 14
This news is now three weeks old, but I only just noticed it and no one else seems to have mentioned it in English. The man who stabbed the blogger ProState in Flames (journalist and writer Xu Lai) at a book signing on Valentines Day was sentenced to four and a half years in prison early this month.
The attacker, Yang Chun, was arrested in Suzhou less than a week after the stabbing and a court in Beijing accepted the case in June. (See Danwei.) The prosecution alleged that Yang Chun had carried out the attack because he believed Xu Lai had damaged his friend’s reputation.
Yang had previously been in prison for embezzlement. He was also reportedly kidnapped last year.
A Southern Metropolis Daily report on August 7 confirmed internet speculation that Yang Chun’s “friend” was Peking University professor Kong Qingdong (Yang was Kong’s assistant) and that Yang was angry about one particular blog post:
Chairman Mao’s old warrior Kong Qingdong taken away for suspected involvement in North Korean spy case.
According to informed sources at Peking University, plainclothes police officers from the State Security Bureau came around 7pm to the university security office and asked to see Professor Kong Qingdong. They informed Kong that he was suspected of providing information to North Korea through his Beijing University Sovereign Thoughts Study Group and took him away for interrogation.
(See cat898 in Chinese and ESWN in English)
The rumor caused a bit of a stir, but it was quickly dispelled and that surely should have been the end of it. Instead, for some peculiar reason, Yang Chun landed himself back in prison for an utterly pointless attack. He also had to pay 70,000 yuan in compensation for Xu Lai’s hospital bill and lost earnings.
One of the things that puzzles me is that reports back in February referred to two attackers, not one. Maybe this is because eyewitnesses were confused. I don’t know.
Xu Lai still hasn’t started blogging again.
Xu Lai after the attack
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