An Internet ‘Big V’ Opts for Abject Contrition

Charles Xue, an American businessman who once embodied the raucous energies testing Internet censorship in China, has returned to prominence as the opposite: a contrite prisoner endorsing the government’s determination to cleanse and control the Web.

In a display recalling the Communist Party’s past ideological offensives, Xue was shown on state-run television on Thursday, repenting his misdeeds, endorsing the campaign against him and thanking officials for their mercy. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security said that Xue had been granted bail, nearly eight months after the police detained him in Beijing and charged him with having sex with prostitutes. Despite the sex charge, a torrent of official media reports at the time left little doubt that the government’s ire against Xue was prompted by his presence on the Internet, where he attracted 12 million followers on Weibo, a popular microblogging service similar to Twitter.