A Chinese man has been sentenced to one year in prison for destroying a portrait of Genghis Khan by a court in the country's Inner Mongolia region, sparking online debate on the use of laws to punish acts of "ethnic hatred".

In a video that he shared online this May, the man surnamed Luo stood inside a yurt and stomped on a picture of legendary conqueror Genghis Khan, a public security bureau in the northern region announced Wednesday.

Luo was convicted this week of "inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination" and apologised before the local court for "harming public sentiment".

Mongol Empire founder Genghis Khan remains a revered figure among many ethnic Mongols.

Ordos city authorities said several members of the public had reported the viral video to the police.

While Luo was condemned on social media for the video, some commenters on the Twitter-like Weibo platform also questioned the severity of his prison sentence.

"Chinese law is too elastic, it's not standardised," one user said.

Another accused the authorities of ruling by "Mongol Empire Law".

Some Weibo posts commenting on the sentence were subsequently removed, along with both the statement from the Ordos public security bureau and a post from the city's party committee about the conviction.

Chinese authorities routinely censor politically sensitive material online.

yan/lth/amz

Weibo

Tweet

US military touts drug lab air strikes in Afghanistan
Washington (AFP) Dec 12, 2017
The US military on Tuesday touted its air campaign to destroy Taliban drug facilities in Afghanistan, saying it was impacting cash flow to the insurgents. According to Air Force Brigadier General Lance Bunch, US and Afghan warplanes have destroyed 25 drug processing labs since the campaign started on November 20. "This equates to almost $80 million of drug money eliminated from the kingp ... read more

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only