Human rights advocates and some academics in China have had their WeChat messaging app accounts restricted in the past few weeks, multiple people affected have said, as Beijing cracks down on dissent before the Beijing Winter Olympics.
China hopes to make next week’s Games a soft power triumph, although the lead-up has seen some Western powers launch a diplomatic boycott over Beijing’s rights record and cybersecurity firms warn athletes of digital surveillance risks.
For China’s ever-dwindling community of rights advocates, the imminent arrival of the world’s best athletes has triggered a familiar clampdown.
Photo: AFP
Eight people told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that their WeChat accounts had been restricted in some form since early last month, with some unable to use their accounts entirely and forced to re-register.
The restrictions came as authorities detained two prominent human rights advocates, lawyer Xie Yang (謝陽) and writer Yang Maodong (楊茂), while a third rights lawyer missing since early last month is believed by relatives to be in secret detention.
“This storm of shuttering WeChat accounts is too strong and unprecedented,” said veteran journalist Gao Yu (高瑜), whose account had features such as group chat messaging permanently disabled for the first time on Dec. 20.
China routinely suppresses the social media accounts and physical movements of dissidents during politically sensitive periods such as Chinese Communist Party gatherings in Beijing or key anniversaries such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.
A National Party Congress is to take place toward the end of this year when Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the nation’s most authoritarian leader in a generation, is expected to further cement his rule with a third term.
The arrival of the Winter Olympics has presaged a clampdown similar to those surrounding other major events.
“The government now wants to make sure that people don’t cross the line online to poke the facade of a perfect Winter Olympic Games,” said Yaqiu Wang (王亞秋), a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Tencent’s app WeChat is a mainstay of daily life in China, with users relying on it for a range of services, including payments and scanning health codes that permit entry to public venues.
“I know many people who’ve been banned from posting in group chats or posting WeChat Moments lately,” a Beijing lawyer whose account was restricted last month said on condition of anonymity.
Beijing-based writer Zhang Yihe (章詒和) said her WeChat group chat and Moments functions — similar to Facebook’s Wall or Instagram Stories — were restricted on Jan. 8.
Tsinghua University sociology professor Guo Yuhua (郭于華) confirmed her account was permanently blocked the same day, while prominent legal academic He Weifang (賀衛方) said he encountered the same on Jan. 9.
“Isn’t this equal to removing an individual from a public space?” said Zhang, adding that she can now only send WeChat messages to individual users.
“Before and during the Olympics is a major sensitive period,” added a Beijing-based rights advocate whose account was restricted twice in the past two months.
Tencent, the owner of WeChat, did not respond to a request for comment.
The International Olympic Committee said in an e-mailed response that it “has neither the mandate nor the capability to change the laws or the political system of a sovereign country,” adding that it “must remain neutral on all global political issues.”
Beijing Games organizers said that they “oppose the politicization of sports” and were “not aware of these matters.”
Meanwhile, those still free lament mounting restrictions on speech under the present political climate.
“The space for public discourse is getting smaller and smaller,” He said.
The images of a besuited Ferdinand Marcos Jr, clad in a top hat and leaning nonchalantly on a Rolls-Royce, dating from his time in Britain in the 1970s, are as you might expect from the playboy scion of a kleptocratic dictator. Yet as the Marcos family returns to power in the Philippines after a landslide presidential victory by Marcos Jr, he is facing calls to stop misrepresenting the circumstances of his studies at the University of Oxford. The university has confirmed that he did not complete his degree in philosophy, politics and economics after enrolling in 1975. “According to our records, he did
A glimpse of a possible Picasso in the home of Imelda Marcos filmed during a visit by her son after his presidential election win has set off a flurry of speculation in the Philippines, where the family that once plundered billions is set to return to power. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late dictator, won a landslide victory in Monday’s presidential election, an outcome that has appalled those who survived his father’s regime. Images released by the family showed Marcos Jr visiting the home of his mother, who had displayed Picasso’s Femme Couche VI (Reclining Woman VI),
HATE CRIME: Officials were investigating a detailed ‘manifesto’ posted online before the livestreamed shooting, in which the suspect outlined his reasoning and plans A heavily armed 18-year-old white man on Saturday shot 10 people dead at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in a “racially motivated” attack that he livestreamed on camera, authorities said. The gunman, who was wearing body armor and a helmet, was arrested after the massacre, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told a news conference. Gramaglia put the toll at 10 dead and three wounded. Eleven of the victims were African Americans. The gunman shot four people in the parking lot of the Tops supermarket, three of them fatally, then went inside and continued firing, Gramaglia said. Among those killed inside the store was
CALIBRATED RESPONSE: The city-state has learned from its past experiences of dealing with COVID-19 variants to assess the situation and the risks, the transport minister said Singapore will strive to keep its borders open and stay connected to the rest of world even if a new variant of COVID-19 emerges, Singaporean Minister for Transport S. Iswaran said on Wednesday. The city-state has learned from its past experiences of dealing with COVID-19 variants, Iswaran said in an interview with Bloomberg News. When the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 hit, Singapore did not backtrack on its reopening plans, but rather decided to wait and see how things panned out, he said, adding that the response was different versus the Delta outbreak. “We’ve all learned to adapt,” Iswaran said on the sidelines
RSS