First: Qi Hong, his wife, and their two children are safe in Great Britain. They had left China by the time Qi’s protest became visible on a building in Chongqing, a city in southwestern China. (Or perhaps we should say only that Qi and his family are “safer” now than if they had stayed in China. As we too well know, the Chinese Communist Party works to extend its tentacles everywhere in the world.)
“However strong the facade, there are always cracks,” observes The Times (UK) (“Inspired by 1984, a lone Chinese dissident takes a stand against Xi,” September 5, 2025).
A man called Qi Hong…had lit up the night of the city of Chongqing in central China with slogans calling for the Party’s downfall.
“Down with red fascism, overthrow the communist tyranny,” read the image projected on to the side of a building in the city’s university district. Qi particularly wanted to target China’s students, traditionally often at the forefront of protest against the Chinese government, but now said to be more concerned with video games and job hunting.
“No lies, we want the truth; no enslavement, we want freedom; tyrannical Communist Party step down,” the image continued….
He had the chutzpah to leave [his projector and camera] for several days before activating the projector. It took the police 50 minutes to find it, a week ago. By then, the images had already started to circulate on social media, although they were quickly taken down by the authorities operating the so-called Chinese firewall.
The PRC police and censors may have leapt into action, but so did Li Ying, aka Teacher Li, who publishes the popular Chinese-language Twitter-X channel “Teacher Li is not your teacher.” From Italy, Li keeps people back in China—those who use VPNs—up to date with the latest happenings being censored by the Chinese Communist Party.
“When I saw a post on social media showing someone projecting on to a building in Chongqing I immediately checked my inbox—and there he was, having already sent me the entire thing.”
The Party’s crimes
Qi left a handwritten letter for the police who would raid the hotel room where he had set up the projector.
“Dear friend, I don’t know who you are, so I’ll call you friend for now. Perhaps by now you already regard me as your enemy. First of all, I declare that I don’t belong to any organization. But the reason I’ve come to this point is out of helplessness…. The Communist Party’s crimes on this land are too numerous to record…. Please try not to aid the tyrant.”
Qi told The Times that he hopes his action will prove to be “the spark that lit the prairie fire.” Also that “I was once a supporter of the CCP.”
Also see:
Teacher Li is not your teacher: China Action: “Call for open letters from people from all walks of life”
“This essay contest aims to gather the strength of people from all walks of life, reveal real problems through writing, promote national awakening…and mobilize all sectors of society to participate in the nonviolent resistance movement and lay the ideological foundation for the establishment of democratic constitutionalism” (Google-Translated).
