The comrades of Dong Cunrui, a hero died during the Chinese civil war (1946-1949), have appealed on the internet to set up Chinese hero protection law.
Dong¡¯s comrade in arms, Xiao Zequan, Song Zhaotian and Cheng Tuanjiu suggested dividing Chinese heroes into five kinds: History Heroes, Nationality Heroes, Revolutionary Leaders, Revolutionary Martyrs, and Model Heroes.
Celebrity like Confucius, Yue Fei, a Chinese patriot and nationalist military leader who fought for the Southern Song Dynasty against the Jurchen armies of the Jin Dynasty, Sun Yat-sen, a great pioneer of China¡¯s democratic revolution , Lei Feng, a soldier whose selfless and modest figure become an idol to many Chinese are on their protection list.
Wang Fengming, a lawyer in Beijing Sheng Ji Law Office, said Chinese heroes are the spiritual support for the whole Chinese nationality. Usually honour right of natural person is infringed upon, he or his close relative shall have the right to demand that the infringement be stopped and further to economic compensation. But once the reputation of heroes is infringed upon, the influence is much larger that compensation and public apology are not enough to make up spiritual hurt, as the damage is upon Chinese people¡¯s pride.
Even though, China has not published detailed regulations on hero reputation protection. Once the reputation of heroes is infringed upon, they or their relatives can only apply for honour right law on natural persons or decedent to deal with the cases. The problem is that most of the dead heroes have left no relatives in the world or their close relatives are too old to live the life. After the relatives die, heroes¡¯ honour rights would have no assurance.
The proposers took Lei Feng for example. They said that it¡¯s hard to resort to the related law once Lei Feng¡¯s reputation was offended, since he has no close relatives to file the lawsuit for him.
Other opinion said it is not necessary to establish new law once a new social problem appears. They called to find another effective way to solve the problem, like adding Chinese hero protection clause to the present relevant laws