We must hope, though it is very unlikely, that the video by Fang Yirong, “whose identity couldn’t be independently verified by Radio Free Asia,” and/or the name “Fang Yirong” do not accurately identify him (“Hunan banner protester was also in ‘white paper’ movement, video says,” RFA, August 8, 2024).
Otherwise, the 22-year-old has thrown himself onto the pyre. He may already be arrested.
Won’t regret
“Last year, I was placed under watch by police after I posted some views to Telegram in support of democracy,” Fang says in the video (which a provider of English-language captions and RFA translate somewhat differently). “Since then, the police have engaged in inhumane brain control and persecution against me.
“I’m posting this video now to prove that I’m not afraid of them anymore. Tyranny is indeed terrible. But authority cannot crush the human spirit.
“It doesn’t matter what Xi Jinping does to suppress us. He can’t stop the idea of democracy from spreading again and again in the hearts and minds of Chinese people.
“I expect that following my action, I will be treated as mentally ill. I could also wind up dying in prison. But I won’t regret it.”
In his video statement, promoted by the Milan-based Twitter account Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher, Fang says that he participated in the 2022 White Paper movement against the Chinese government’s Draconian restrictions imposed to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Protesters often displayed a blank sheet of paper in mute protest of censorship. The White Paper movement achieved its immediate goal of a rollback of many restrictions related to the pandemic—while leaving intact the newly deployed mechanisms of totalitarian control used to impose the restrictions.
RFA: “People in China frequently challenge those in power, despite pervasive surveillance, a ‘grid’ system of law enforcement at the neighborhood level and a targeted ‘stability maintenance’ system aimed at controlling critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party before they take action.”
The Twitter account Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher identified the actor and reported the action that Fang alludes to in the video but apparently does not mention explicitly: “The person who hung the Sitong Bridge slogan banner on the overpass in Xinhua county, Loudi, Hunan, was a 22-year-old local youth, Fang Yirong.”
Freedom, not control
Fang’s video is posted on YouTube. Teacher Li’s Twitter account has posted two brief videos showing the bridge banner.
The bridge banner said: “Equality, not privilege. Freedom, not control. Reforms, not the Cultural Revolution. Elections, not leaders. Only when we cease being slaves will we become citizens.”
Meanwhile, from a loudspeaker, blared the demands: “We want democracy! We want to vote! Oust Xi Jinping!”
Also see:
X.com @jinniferzeng97: English translation of a public letter by Fang Yirong
“I am 22 years old and from Loudi, Hunan Province. I will not commit suicide and am mentally sane and the government is pressuring my family. I am writing this letter of complaint with anger after months of repression.”
