Spreading rumors is an illegal and criminal act
Article 246 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that whoever publicly insults another person by violence or other means, or fabricates facts to defame another person, if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, public surveillance, or deprivation of political rights.
Under Chinese law, the threshold for establishing the crime of defamation requires "serious circumstances," which is typically met when an online post receives over 5,000 views or 500 shares—these figures constitute the standard for filing a case. If the defamation causes severe consequences such as mental disorder or self-harm by the victim, it also qualifies as "serious circumstances" and satisfies the conditions for initiating a criminal private prosecution.
In the defamatory rumor case discussed in this article, the court ordered Huang to publicly apologize in newspapers with provincial-level or national circulation in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and to pay Liu 200,000 yuan in compensation. (Of course, today there are many judgment debtors who refuse to comply.)