A 16-year-old schoolboy, identified by his surname Yang, was arrested at his junior high school in northwestern China's Gansu Province last week. The teenager's alleged crime involved online posts in which he suggested police had beaten the relatives of a man who accidentally died and suggested that protests must be carried out. The message was reposted many times, resulting in hundreds of people gathering at the scene of the death and causing serious traffic congestion.

As Yang is a juvenile, the incident has caused quite a stir. Some people claim it is the first case since the Chinese Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate declared that those who spread a rumor on the Internet could be punished if the rumor was reposted over 500 times. The public opinion sphere seems very unfavorable to the local police in Gansu.

A number of legal experts interviewed by the Global Times stated the behavior of the local police was indeed questionable. We hope this matter can be properly dealt with under the rule of law.

But no matter how it ends up, it is inappropriate to say the judicial interpretation by the top court and procuratorate is unreasonable.

Since the interpretation was made public, there has been a wave of criticism targeting grass-roots officials by liberals in major cities such as Beijing. Such criticisms have the positive impact of making local governments seek to improve their performance. However, some take this as an opportunity to decry the work of all officials. Some liberals deliberately portray individual officials' behavior as that of the entire government. The incident in Gansu is a typical example.

Many local governments haven't undergone the test of online opinion. It is unrealistic to make these authorities cater to the whim of online communities, although this should be the direction of their efforts.

Now the Internet has framed the confrontation between intellectuals of big cities and officials from backwaters. When an incident occurs at the grass-roots level, the government at a higher level should offer timely assistance. This will defuse a tense situation and help grass-roots governments attain a more favorable opinion.

The unfavorable opinion sphere for officials on the Internet has been consolidated, which has become one of the biggest obstacles to China's social construction.

Responsible law experts should supervise the implementation of the judicial interpretation rather than seeking loopholes within local government work to attack the interpretation itself.

The interpretation has already had a deterrent effect on online rumors. It does not harm normal online expression or affect the expression of opinions. The incident in Gansu is further proof that all of society should allow the law to have the final say.