As previously reported on our blog, in the United States, a Facebook post can get you fired. Well, in China, a tweet can send you to labor camp…

As reported on NPR — Last month China and Japan were having a diplomatic spat over a chain of uninhabited, but disputed, islands in the East China Sea. Angry Chinese youth were demonstrating against Japan, smashing Japanese goods that kind of thing. Hua Chunhui thought the whole thing was ridiculous and sent a tweet joking that if the protestors really wanted to make a difference, they’d smash the Japanese pavilion at the Expo in Shanghai.

Hua’s fiancée, Cheng Jianping, thought it was funny, and re-tweeted it, adding “Charge, angry youth.” Ten days later she was detained by police “for disrupting social order” and has now been sent to the Shibali River women’s labour camp in Zhengzhou city in Henan Province. Mr. Hua said his fiance had started a hunger strike and he was trying to get her released to undergo her re-education at home.

Cheng, 46, is a human rights advocate and had been arrested before for supporting human rights and democracy advocates in China. Twitter is illegal in China. A person can be sent away for re-education through labor for up to four years with no trial.