China's secret war with activists covering anti-Xi Jinping protests

China is conducting a campaign to intimidate activists associated with last year's protests

China is conducting an intimidation campaign against activists associated with last year's large-scale anti-lockdown protests aimed at against them and their families at home and abroad in an attempt to stamp out dissent.

Nearly half a year after a rare outburst of public anger against China's draconian Covid rules that directly challenged the ruling Communist Party, those who helped shed light to the protests, they say they are still being persecuted.

From threatening visits by government agents to inexplicable bank freezes and false accusations, Beijing has a range of tools at its disposal to intimidate and prosecute those it considers troublemakers, all while maintaining plausible deniability.

Officers who visited his parents to to tell them that their son is breaking the law, they wanted Mr. Li, a Chinese citizen living in Italy, to stop sharing information about the protests online.

But he refused, and the intimidation continued, infiltrating from China in his life in Europe.

A few days ago, his financial accounts in China were suddenly frozen, depriving him of significant savings.

Then, the school he worked for in Italy cut ties with him after receiving an anonymous report that he had embezzled tuition fees, which he denies.

“I thought there was a possibility that that [the Chinese authorities] will deprive me of my financial position in China,” Mr. Li told The Telegraph. “But I never thought that I would be cut off abroad as well, or that they would use this method of anonymous tip-off to interfere with my work in Italy.”

“Secret Police Stations”

Earlier this month, the US arrested two Chinese nationals allegedly linked to «secret police stations» used to spy and intimidate exiles, the first such criminal charge in the world. his post in Italy was apparently enough to irritate the authorities, although Lee himself did not participate in the protests.

His Twitter account, which now has a million followers, was key to the chronicle of the protests. as they rolled across China.

The protesters were frustrated by the three-year draconian «zero-Covid» policy. Some have even called for President Xi Jinping to step down, a bold move as he has witnessed an unprecedented crackdown on human rights in his decade in office. Many held sheets of blank white paper in their hands as a sign of defiance to the ubiquitous censorship.

Mr. Li rushed to save photos and videos from Chinese social media before censors removed the material, posting it on Twitter as a way to archive the biggest protests of his life.

Mr. Li's account of the persecution his by the Chinese authorities is consistent with a pattern of intimidation that China has long used against anyone the state considers problematic, no matter where they are in the world.

A demonstrator holds a protest sign in Beijing, November 2022. Photo: Ng Han Guan/AP

No Teng Biao, a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer living in exile in the US, said the extent of the Chinese government's tools to silence dissidents , including with the help of economic means, are expanding.

“Since Xi Jinping came to power, not only are vocal dissidents being targeted, but others who speak out online are also increasingly subject to suppression and persecution, from online harassment to offline threats… and the spread of falsehoods against them. information,” he said. «China's establishment of overseas police stations is also indicative of its growing recklessness.»

Huang Yicheng, 26, who participated in the protests, said Chinese security forces threatened his parents after he spoke about the demonstrations to reporters in Europe when he arrived to study.

Government agents told his parents that their son's comments amounted to «incitement to undermine government authority.» This accusation has been used to imprison prominent activists, including Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who died in custody in 2017.

“At this moment, my parents are so frightened that they don’t even can speak clearly,” said Mr. Huang.

Last year, Mr. Huang and others peacefully protested when the police knocked him to the ground, punching and kicking him. They then dragged him on the ground with their feet, causing his face to bleed profusely, he said.

White Paper protests

Officers took him to a bus with other detained protesters, where Mr. Huang watched them beat several of the women, but managed to escape in the chaos before the police confirmed his identity.

“That night I came home with blood on my face, but my parents were unaware of the white paper protests,” said He. Everything related to the protests has been censored in China.

For the next several months, Mr. Huang lived in fear of being arrested while waiting to obtain a student visa for Germany, where he plans to apply for asylum.

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«Now I definitely can't go back to China,» — he said. “There is a possibility that the government will confiscate the property registered in my name, or even deprive my parents of their pensions; there is nothing I can do if that happens.”

Mr. Li and Mr. Huang say the fight against harassment has helped highlight the importance of speaking up.

“Although I am concerned that more and more serious threats are coming to me and my family, I will insist on speaking out,” Mr. Huang said. «I won't shut up no matter what happens to me.»

After last year's protests, Mr. Li was more positive about his efforts to hold the Chinese government to account.

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Now, «I became more pessimistic,” he said, admitting that his whole life had been turned upside down. «Right now, I don't have much of a future.»

He even received threatening phone calls from people claiming to be former employees of an education consulting company he previously ran in China demanding a payback.

According to Mr. Li, this is another attempt by the Chinese authorities to get to him.

He believes that even if he stops posting on the Internet and finds a new job, “there is no guarantee that they won't bother me.»

And that means «Obviously, I should keep running this Twitter account.»