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CNN
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For more than a decade, Mr. Li has been able to circumvent China’s internet regulations and post on Twitter (now known as X) without getting into trouble with the authorities.
The Chinese lawyer distances himself from politically sensitive topics, rarely engages with other users, and treats the platform primarily as an archive to back up his posts on heavily censored Chinese social media. Ta.
He continues to tweet even as the Chinese government ramps up efforts to control free speech beyond the Great Firewall of internet censorship, interrogating, detaining and imprisoning Chinese Twitter users who criticize leader Xi Jinping and his government. There is.
Last month, in a sign of a growing crackdown on overseas social media sites, Mr Lee was also summoned by police, not for what he tweeted but for who he followed.
In an early morning phone call, the police officer invited Lee to “want to have tea” (a euphemism for a police interrogation) and told him about the “sensitive accounts” he was following on X.
At the police station, it becomes clear that the officers only have one target. It has a cat avatar and the handle “Mr. Lee is not your teacher.”
Lee said in an interview, “The police asked me if I followed the account “Teacher Lee Is Not Your Teacher,” but to be honest, I didn’t know.” He allegedly logged into X under police supervision, found the account and unfollowed it on the spot.
The account belongs to Li Ying, a Chinese artist turned dissident in Italy who rose to fame in 2022 by live-tweeting protests across China against President Xi Jinping’s zero-coronavirus policy. Ta.
Since then, Li’s account has become the go-to source for censored news in China. His followers send him photos and videos from Chinese social media before being erased by censors, and Mr. Li reposts them on It offers a rare and unflinching glimpse into aspects of Chinese life. look.
Lee’s X-Feed chronicles everything from school scandals and factory fires to protests by migrant workers demanding unpaid wages, offering a parallel universe to the sanitized version of reality presented by the Chinese government. is creating.
For more than a year, authorities pressured Mr. Li into silence by frequently visiting his parents, interrogating his friends, classmates, and contacts on Chinese social media, and freezing his bank accounts and mobile payments. He said he had tried calling to no avail.
The 31-year-old has quit his job and moved four times due to safety concerns, but continues to tweet.
And now Chinese authorities appear to be pursuing his followers in China.
The escalation in attacks on one of China’s most influential X accounts comes as the U.S. government grows increasingly wary of Beijing’s cross-border expansion into cyberspace. The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban on the Chinese-owned app TikTok, citing national security concerns.
Courtesy of Mr. Lee
Li Ying spends most of her day in front of a computer running the X account.
X, like Facebook and other Western social media platforms, is blocked in China. But a small number of Chinese people, usually educated and tech-savvy city dwellers, are accessing it via virtual private networks to keep abreast of the world beyond the Great Firewall.
Since its acquisition by Elon Musk, Chinese X, like the rest of the platform, has become increasingly filled with misinformation, propaganda, and pornography. But for Chinese speakers at home and abroad to express political dissent, discuss social issues, and, increasingly, accounts like Mr. It still provides a valuable venue for understanding what is happening.
Since China’s protests against coronavirus lockdowns, Li’s popularity has skyrocketed, doubling his number of followers the following year.
But on February 25, Mr. Li warned his Chinese readers that the Ministry of Public Security was investigating his 1.6 million followers “one by one” and that local police were urging them to “have a cup of tea” once they identified the user. did.
“If you feel scared, I encourage you to just unfollow me. Bookmark one of my tweets or search my account name to read the day’s news in the future. You can,” Lee wrote.emergency notification” at X.
He also urged users to better protect their accounts from revealing their identities. Under the post, Lee shared a screenshot of a private message he received from a follower who said he had been questioned by police.
CNN has reached out to the Ministry of Public Security for comment.
Li’s warning shocked China’s small but influential X-zone. In just a few days, he lost around 200,000 followers. Other prominent Chinese dissidents and activists on the platform also reported sharp declines in follower numbers. Panic also spread to YouTube, a key source of income for many exiled dissidents, including Lee.
“We certainly knew it would cause some panic, but we didn’t expect it to reach this extent,” Lee said. “It shows that fear is more ingrained in our hearts than freedom.”
Mr Lee said he issued the warning because police harassment of believers had escalated significantly in recent months. Since December, he had received messages from more than 100 followers across China saying police had been summoned over his account.
Many of the followers facing questioning had never tweeted about politics or criticized the government, but the only question police had for them was why they were following Lee, he said. said.
Yaqiu Wang, director of China research at the advocacy group Freedom House, said that simply following an X account could lead to a police investigation because X users are typically targeted for expressing their opinions. He said that the situation had escalated from the past.
“For the authorities, following a particular account means that you are thinking the wrong thing in your head and should be punished. In other words, you are committing a ‘thought crime.’ ,” she said. “This is a clear sign that the Chinese government is further tightening its control over freedom of expression within the country.”
Shen Xiang/Feature China/Future Publishing/Getty Images
On October 28, 2023, a bouquet of flowers was placed in honor of former Prime Minister Li Keqiang outside his childhood home in Anhui Province, China.
Li said police summons intensified after former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 68, just months after retiring.
Li Keqiang’s death caused nationwide grief. For many, it was also a rare opportunity to vent pent-up frustrations with Mr. Xi, who is widely seen as a step removed from supreme leader and former prime minister.
In X, Li Ying’s explanation provided a window into the outpouring of sadness and frustration. Followers sent him photos of flowers and notes left in memory of the late prime minister in public places across the country. Some users said they were prompted to take action after seeing posts on Lee’s account.
“(The authorities) were angry that I posted a number of posts about people mourning across China. That’s what they were trying to downplay in the mainstream media and hide from the public,” he said. .
Lee said his account was targeted for a simple reason. Because it is a record of what is happening in China.
“Within China, authorities have many ways to extinguish things instantly, whether it’s a fire or a highway accident,” he said. “But once it’s posted here, it’s seen by many more people, and sometimes ends up back on the Chinese internet. This is something out of the government’s control.”
Wang, the Freedom House researcher, said that as dissatisfaction with political repression, economic slowdown and other social issues grows, more Chinese want to know the truth about their country and are taking risks to study Great Britain.・He stated that the firewall has been expanded to allow free access. information.
“Beijing is increasingly concerned about its ideological control over Chinese people and fears ‘foreign influence’ on its own people,” she said.
Wang said the growing crackdown is a sign of the party-state’s weakness, not its strength, and is a reflection of the power wielded by individual activists.
“Chinese authorities fear young people like Teacher Li and see them as a threat to Chinese governance,” Wang said.
“People often say that activism and political mobilization are impossible in China given the level of government repression, but Chinese activists are constantly adapting and finding new ways to express dissent and build resistance movements.”
When questioned by authorities, Li, a Chinese lawyer, said that before his visit to the police station, he knew little about Li’s background or his role in anti-Zero corona protests, and that he learned of the account from China. He said it was because there was too much news. .
“Dr. Lee’s content is telling the truth. He is one of the few accounts of X who doesn’t talk nonsense,” he said.
Lee said the officers remained “courteous and courteous” throughout the interrogation, which lasted less than 30 minutes.
“I didn’t feel any fear because I hadn’t done anything wrong or wrong,” he says. “And I followed Dr. Lee back as soon as I walked out the door.”