A popular Chinese online personality who authorities claim “insulted” the country’s national anthem has been put into detention for five days, local Shanghai police said in a statement.
Yang Kaili, a 20-year-old live streamer with at least 44 million followers, was punished after some internet users reported her to the police for “insulting the integrity of the national anthem during a live broadcast.”
In a video of the original broadcast on October 7, Yang sits in her apartment waving her hands in the air, mimicking a conductor, then sings the initial lines of the “March of the Volunteers,” China’s national anthem.
Usually in her videos, Yang sings and dances around while talking to fans who tune in for her broadcasts.
Police said she had violated China’s “National Anthem Law” during her broadcast and had been taken for five days of “administrative detention” by the Jing’an branch of the Shanghai Police Department.
Under strict new laws imposed by the Chinese government in October 2017, people who “disrespect” the national anthem could go to jail for up to 15 days.
There were even reports at the time Beijing was considering extending the punishment to three years in prison.
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