The Returning Valiant: Five teenagers in Hong Kong pleaded guilty to urging an “armed revolution” under a national security law
A judge ordered five teenagers with a Hong Kong group to serve at least three years in jail for urging an “armed revolution” in a national security case.
The five, some of whom were minors aged between 15 and 18 at the time of the alleged offence, had pleaded guilty to “inciting others to subvert state power” through a group named “Returning Valiant.”
After adoption of a sweeping, China-imposed national security law, defendants advocated a “bloody revolution” to overthrow the Chinese state at street booths and on social media.
Kwok took into consideration their age and immaturity, and sentenced them to a training center, rather than jail for their alleged crimes.
The French andUkrainian Revolutions are examples of successful armed rebellions, and the group quotes MaoZedong as saying a revolution was a violent act of one class overthrowing another.
At least 22 people linked to the group were arrested last year. Several people are charged under the security law with conspiring to commit terrorism.
Authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong say the security law has restored stability to the global financial hub after mass anti-government and pro-democracy protests in 2019.
In a July report, experts on the UN Human Rights Committee called for the repeal of the law, which they claim is being used to crack down on fundamental freedoms.
Beijing is a bridge, not China: a case study of a young Chinese student protesting Beijing in the wake of Covid-19
Jolie’s nerves were running high as she walked into the campus of Goldsmiths, the University of London, last Friday morning. She had planned to arrive early so the campus would be empty, but her fellow students were already arriving.
Finally, when she made sure none of the students – especially those who, like Jolie, come from China – were watching, she quickly pasted one of them on a notice board.
In English, it said “life not zero- Covid policy, freedom not martial-law lockdownish, dignity not lies, reform not cultural revolution, votes not dictatorship, citizens not slaves.”
The Chinese version of the slogan was written on the door of the public restroom. As he scrawled on, he was gripped by a paralyzing fear of being caught by the strict surveillance. He was forced to continue. “(The Beijing protester) had sacrificed his life or the freedom of the rest of his life to do what he did. I think we should also be obliged to do something that we can do,” he said.
In the past week, as the party elites gathered in Beijing to praise Xi and his policies at the 20th Party Congress, anti-Xi slogans in a number of Chinese cities and universities have popped up.
“Due to censorship and surveillance, people can only express political opinions by writing slogans in places like toilets. It’s sad that we have not been treated fairly.
Chinese students in other countries have stepped forward to defend Beijing when it was attacked, sometimes with the approval of the Chinese embassies.
For many overseas Chinese students, including Jolie, it is their first time to have taken political action, driven by a mixture of awe and guilt toward the “Bridge Man” and a sense of duty to show solidarity.
As China’s online censors went into overdrive last week to scrub out all discussions about the Sitong Bridge protest, some social media users shared an old Chinese saying: “A tiny spark can set the prairie ablaze.”
The critics have paid a heavy price. Two years ago, Ren had been sentenced to 18 years on corruption charges after he criticized the leader and his handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The risks of speaking out did not deter the college student from doing so. The “Bridge Man” inspired the message that was left in the bathroom stall. Below the message, he drew a picture of Winnie the Pooh wearing a crown, with a “no” sign drawn over it. The chubby cartoon bear has been compared to Xi by Chinese social media users.
He overcame the fear of being found out and the consequences by pushing it aside. When he heard about the Tiananmen Square massacre, he hoped his scrawls would cause a change among those who saw them.
He is leading the country into the depths, just as Xi was named “the Accelerator-in-Chief”. The most desperate thing is that through the [Party Congress], Xi Jinping will likely establish his status as the emperor and double down on his policies.”
Chen Qiang, a fresh graduate in southwestern China, shared that bleak outlook – the economy is faltering, and censorship is becoming ever more stringent, he said.
Outcomes of Chinese protests to the Communist Party: A human rights lawyer’s perspective on the persecution of Xi in the Netherlands
Wu, the student in Eastern China, applauded the term for its “ironic effect.” But he said it also offers an inspiration. “Even in a cramped space like the toilet, as long as you have a revolutionary heart, you can make your own contribution,” he said.
The photo of the protest on the Sitong Bridge is featured in one of the posters on the notice boards of the University of London.
Putting up protest posters “is the smallest thing, but the biggest I can do now – not because of my ability but because of my lack of courage,” Jolie said, pointing to her relative safety acting outside China’s borders.
Others shared a similar sense of guilt. “I feel ashamed. If I were in Beijing now, I would never have the courage to do such a thing,” said Yvonne Li, who graduated from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands last year.
I really wanted to cry when I first saw the protest. I felt politically depressed reading Chinese news everyday. I couldn’t see any hope. She said that she realized there was still light in the picture when she saw the brave man.
Teng Biao, a human rights lawyer and visiting professor at the University of Chicago, said he is struck by how fast the overseas opposition to Xi has gathered pace and how far it has spread.
When Xi scrapped presidential term limits in 2018, posters featuring the slogan “Not My President” and Xi’s face had surfaced in some universities outside China – but the scale paled in comparison, Teng noted.
“In the past, there were only sporadic protests by overseas Chinese dissidents. He said that most of the voices from university campuses were in favor of the Chinese government.
Party members in China will be watching for any consequences. The party built a high-tech surveillance state, wiped out much of civil society, and tightened its grip on all things life but it appears to have solidified its hold on power.
According to Teng, Beijing has begun to control Chinese student bodies abroad in order to ensure that the party line is observed even on foreign campuses.
“We were scared and kept looking around. I found it absurd at the time and reflected briefly upon it – what we were doing is completely legal here (in the Netherlands), but we were still afraid of being seen by other Chinese students,” said Li, the recent graduate in Rotterdam.
The fear of being betrayed by peers has weighed heavily on Jolie, the student in London, in particular while growing up in China with views that differed from the party line. She said that she was feeling lonely. “The horrible (thing) is that your friends and classmates may report you.”
She showed her support for the Bridge Man by sharing it with other people as well. The day after the protest in Beijing, a lot of photos showing protest posters from all over the world was posted on the social network.
She said that she was so moved that she had so many friends, although she didn’t know them. How can I get in touch with you and how can I find you?
“Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher”: A cat avatar of a teacher protesting against the Chinese prime minister’s anti-government
Sometimes, it’s all it takes to make the students feel reassured when a new protest poster shows up on the notice board.
I went back to see if they were still there, and I found another small poster hanging by someone else.
“I feel like it is my responsibility to do this,” they said. If they didn’t do anything, “it’s just going to be over, and I just don’t want it to be over so quickly without any consequences.”
I want other people to also know that there are still some like-minded people in China. People are not all brainwashed. We’re still a country with hopes and ideals.
The unprecedented protests that swept China late last month, posing the biggest challenge to leader Xi Jinping’s authority since he came to power, had a peculiar focal point: a Chinese Twitter account with a cat avatar.
The account “Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher” live-tweeted demonstrations in real-time, offering a rare window into just how fast the people came to demand freedom and accountability.
Behind the account is a bespectacled 30-year-old painter called Li who spent most of his waking hours in front of a curved monitor and a pastels keyboard in a living room corner hundreds of thousands of miles away from the protests in Italy.
For days, he waded through an endless torrent of private messages in his inbox, which were sent by people across China to share news of the protests and their aftermath. The senders were protected from Chinese authorities when he posted them on their behalf.
“I didn’t have the time to react at all. My only thought at the time was to document what was happening,” Li said. “The influence is beyond my imagination. Billions of clicks on my feed were not expected in such a short period of time.
Many protesters have to face the consequences of their political defiance. Due to Chinas border restrictions and high plane ticket prices, he hasn’t returned to his parents since 2019. The easing of domestic Covid measures has raised hope that China will be able to open its borders. But Li may never be able to go home again.
They had another police visit on the day. In the morning, a local police chief and a handful of officers had already called on Li’s parents. Li was accused of attacking the state and the communist Party and was presented with a list of his retweets as evidence.
“As soon as I started to update Twitter, they called my parents to tell me to stop posting. And then they went to our house at midnight to harass my parents,” Li said.
Li told his parents that he was not working for anyone. His father pleaded with him to take a break from posting.
In the Cultural Revolution that happened in the late 1960s and 1970s, he attended a college and worked as an art teacher after graduating.
In China’s largest cities, from the eastern financial hub of Shanghai to the capital Beijing, the southern metropolis of Guangzhou and Chengdu in the west, political demands were chanted along with slogans against Covid tests and lockdowns. A group of people held up white paper in a protest to demand the freedom of the press, movies, books and arts.
Piasso at the Circus: The Journey from Childhood to the 21st Century in a Dynamical Political World – Portrait of a Young Artist
Their calls resonated deeply with Li, who grew up learning how to paint and watching foreign cartoons and films (he has a toy Yoda from Star Wars on a shelf next to his chair) during an era when China seemed freer and more open to the world.
Li said he did not seek out politics – instead, like many young Chinese who took to the streets, he was unwittingly swept up by political currents. He described himself as someone who had been pushed along by the tides, and chosen by history to document the important chapter of it.
Li would not even have been on Twitter – let alone be one of its most influential Chinese-language users – if censorship hadn’t become so suffocating on Weibo, China’s own Twitter-like platform.
Liberal intellectuals, lawyers and journalists and other influential commentators led critical discussions on social issues – sometimes issuing scathing criticism or ridicule of officials.
By 2012, Li had become more critical of society. At 19 years old, a young artist held his first private exhibition at a gallery in Jinan. He named it “Picasso at the Circus” in order to mock this absurd society that is like a circus filled with funny animals.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/10/china/china-twitter-teacher-li-profile-intl-hnk/index.html
Born to Die: A Snapchat Story about a Girl in Bursts, Deaths, and Death Threats: A Twitter Teacher’s Perspective
He lost his last account after he shared a picture of a 15-year-old Uyghur girl in internment who was featured in a report on the police files. For her, I wanted to be brave. It was well worth it,” he said on Twitter. “Having seen her face, I won’t be able to fall asleep tonight if I just sit by and not retweet it.”
After trying all the different methods to set up a new account, Li changed his mind to the micro-blogging site. He said that it felt great since you no longer need to use code names.
And so on November 26, when Li saw in his Twitter inbox a video showing crowds openly chanting “Xi Jinping, step down!” He was in awe on the streets of his new city.
When I heard that slogan, I was a bit embarrassed to say I froze for a second. I wanted to be brave and document it if they dared to shout it. He wrote out the word by word in a tweets.
Death threats were among thousands of direct messages Li received in his inbox. He said that he gets a lot of anonymous harassment from people saying they know who he is.
He ignored them and focused on the protests. But when he stepped away from his computer, the dark thoughts would come back to haunt him.
“This account is more important than my life,” he said. “I will not shut it down. If something unfortunate happens to me, I have arranged for someone else to take over.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/10/china/china-twitter-teacher-li-profile-intl-hnk/index.html
Xiaolei Wu, 25, charged with stalking for allegedly harassing a student advocate in China during the H1N1 pandemic
The demonstrations had largely stopped by the first week of December. Some protesters received cell phone calls from the police telling them not to take to the streets again, others were taken for questioning and some remained in internment.
But in a major victory for the protesters, China announced on Wednesday a dramatic overhaul of its pandemic policy, scrapping some of the most onerous restrictions in the clearest sign yet the government is moving away from its draconian zero-Covid policy.
When he saw people on the streets holding up pieces of white paper, he knew he had to sacrifice something of himself as well. I’m prepared if my parents don’t let me see them again.
His Twitter name is a self-mockery of his own accent: people from his home province cannot differentiate the pronunciations of “Li” – his surname – and “ni”, meaning “You.”
A year ago, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lejian told foreign reporters to “chuckle to themselves” if they lived in China during the H1N1 swine flu epidemic. The sarcastic way in which the phrase has been used on Chinese social media criticizes zero- Covid.
The Chinese diaspora around the world know about the cat. But at the same time, it has also become the most dangerous cat on the Chinese internet,” he said.
A Chinese student appeared in a federal court in the United States on Wednesday, charged with one count of stalking after allegedly threatening and harassing someone who advocated for democracy in China, US authorities said.
Xiaolei Wu, 25, a student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the US Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts.
Wu allegedly also solicited others to find where the person lives, and publicly posted their email address online in the hope that they would receive abuse, the documents said.
The spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s Office told CNN that he was released after the court appearance. He is not sure if he entered a plea. CNN has reached out to the Federal Public Defender Office in Massachusetts, which is representing Wu, for comment.