Between about January 29 and February 23, 2002, Liu Haiyang, an electrical engineering student at Tsinghua University, repeatedly used concentrated sulfuric acid and caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, against bears at Bear Mountain in Beijing Zoo. Public records state that five bears were injured: three black bears, one brown bear, and one bear described in Chinese reports as a “ma bear.”

This was not a passing prank. Corrosive chemicals cause intense pain, burns, and lasting bodily harm. Beijing Zoo staff were reported as saying that an important breeding male bear was seriously injured and lost reproductive ability. After public-security handling, the court convicted Liu but exempted him from punishment.

The case drew nationwide attention at the time. Public discussion moved from life education, mental health, and humanities education in universities to animal-protection legislation and public ethics. Whatever later discussions about the offender’s life may say, this archive centers the animals: five captive animals under human care, unable to leave, deliberately harmed with chemicals inside a public zoo.

This record does not use unverified injury photographs. The images are real Beijing Zoo location and site-context photographs, with captions stating that they are not images of the injured bears.

Sources and image note

• 北京动物园条目：刘海洋伤熊案与熊山背景
• 清华大学校史条目：2002年刘海洋伤熊事件记载
• 北京动物园条目所引中国新闻网 2003-05-01《北京“硫酸泼熊案”一审判决：刘海洋被法院定罪免刑》。