On the one hand, defacing the property of others is properly illegal (if and when it is illegal), whether the means of defacement is a plucky graffito or anything else.
On the other hand, if the first layer of graffiti consists of pro-China-government slogans that “ironically or not” herald China’s “socialist core values,” which in practice are oppressive and totalitarian “values,” it is hard to be upset about it when later layers of graffiti offer an anti-Chinazi counterpoint.
Per The Guardian (“Chinese political slogans spark graffiti free-for-all on east London wall,” August 8, 2023):
It began with a group of artists and a propaganda slogan: 24 Chinese characters painted in bold red, stretching nearly 100 metres along Brick Lane in London’s East End.
But over the weekend, the Chinese government slogan promoting—ironically or not—the country’s “socialist core values” was swiftly transformed into a forum scrutinising Xi Jinping’s communist rule after garnering attention on social media.
Within hours of appearing on Saturday, the slogan was overlaid with references to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and phrases “Free Taiwan,” “Free Tibet” and “Free Uyghurs”. . . .
“I didn’t know the original intention of the artist, but at least I can explain the second layer of what people added, which shows that Chinese people still have some agency,” said Mary, who asked not to use her real name.
“If you let them speak, they do have something to say,” she said.
“No freedom in China” observed one graffitist. “Fuck communism” was the considered judgment of another. These ruminations are preserved in a Guardian photograph if no longer on the wall itself; the local government quickly painted it all away.
