China’s communist regime has alarmingly increased its surveillance of the country’s already restricted internet, extending repression and attacks on freedom of expression not only to critics of the dictatorship who use online subterfuge to debate domestic politics, but also against those who try to access their content, that is, their followers.
Information released by a British newspaper report The Guardian Earlier this month, they revealed an escalation in the communist regime’s persecution of individuals who access the virtual private network (VPN) to monitor and follow content from influencers who disseminate opinions that differ from the Beijing dictatorship.
THE Guardian cited the story of Duan, described as a university student from China. Duan was a fictitious name used by the British newspaper to refer to the young man, who preferred not to reveal his real name, apparently for fear of reprisal. According to the GuardianDuan managed to bypass the Great Firewall of China – the censorship system that blocks Chinese citizens from accessing foreign websites – in late 2023, using a VPN to access the social media platform Discord, which is banned in the country, as well as several other Western social networks. On this network, the young man joined a community that held political debates and discussions about democracy.
The community accessed by Duan belonged to Chinese influencer Yang Minghao, who shared his views on the communist country there. According to the Guardian, The influencer, who also posted videos on YouTube, created the space with the aim of testing how long it would remain online before being taken down by the Chinese authorities who control the internet in the Asian country.
“I would like to see how far this group can go as far as possible without intervention,” Yang reportedly said on the platform.
However, Duan and other members’ freedom to exchange ideas in the Discord community did not last even a year. Last July, political discussion in the group was abruptly interrupted when Duan and several other members and followers of Yang were called in for questioning by Chinese authorities. As reported by GuardianDuan reported that he was detained for 24 hours by communist authorities, during which police questioned him about his connection to Yang, a figure he had never even met personally but who, as a critic of the regime, is in Beijing’s crosshairs.
The operation carried out against the community created by Yang confirmed, according to the Guardianthat the Chinese have officially adopted a new strategy of control over the country’s internet, where the repression against freedom of expression now affects followers of critics of the regime in the virtual environment, a new way of extracting information to find and silence those who dare to question the communist leadership.
Maya Wang, associate director for China at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told the British newspaper that the extent of the persecution of followers of influencers critical of the communist regime is unprecedented in the Asian country.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen influencer followers being questioned to this extent in the past,” Wang said, highlighting the escalation in the crackdown.
Increasingly invasive
Pressure on followers of influencers critical of Beijing has increased even more in recent weeks. Li Ying, an influencer who was born in China but now lives in Italy and uses his X account to spread the word about protests against the communist regime, said that communist authorities have not only started to pressure his followers, but have also resorted to even more invasive methods. According to him, Chinese people with relatives abroad have been pressured by regime authorities to convince their relatives to stop following him on X.
“The authorities have contacted the relatives of people living outside of China, asking them to convince them to stop following my account,” the influencer said in a post made on X, which was shared by Guardianhighlighting the breadth and persistence of state control.
Cases such as that of Chinese journalist Wang Zhi’an, who lives in Japan, also highlight the scope of the repression. As reported by the British newspaper, Wang’s followers were among those who began to be questioned by the Chinese regime’s police, in a clear attempt to dissuade them from engaging with influencers who challenge the communist dictatorship’s official narratives.
“Part of it is related to the deepening repression,” Wang said.[…] Much of the activism and dissent is now more deeply hidden,” the journalist recalled.
Beijing’s new strategy appears to be part of a larger project created by dictator Xi Jinping. Since taking power, Xi has stepped up his “anti-rumor” campaign, a campaign that only serves to silence voices critical of the regime, a way to eradicate any speech that challenges his authority.
As the repression deepens, the virtual environment has become increasingly hostile to activists and critics of Beijing, who are gradually losing more and more space in the country.
William Farris, a lawyer who has worked at Google and studies free speech cases in China, noted that these campaigns by the Chinese regime have been recurring, with Beijing carrying out annual or biannual offensives to maintain ever-tighter control over the virtual environment. “It’s an annual tradition,” he said.
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