Chinese man staged rare protest before big military parade
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Police officers from Chongqing examining an empty hotel room where a projector flashing anti-Communist slogans was placed.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM X
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BEIJING - A Chinese man staged a rare protest days before President Xi Jinping hosted global leaders for a military parade in Beijing by projecting anti-Communist slogans onto a building in a city in south-western China, social media footage showed.
Giant slogans saying “only without the Communist Party can there be a new China” and “down with red fascism, overthrow Communist tyranny” were projected onto a skyscraper in Chongqing, clips circulated on X and verified by Reuters showed.
A post by overseas dissident Li Ying that featured the video was viewed 18 million times, according to a counter on X.
A separate video published on X and verified by Reuters showed policemen on Aug 29 bursting into the empty hotel room where the projector was stationed.
A 43-year-old Chongqing native named Qi Hong told The New York Times that he had set up the projector in August, before leaving China with his wife and daughters.
He said the projector and a surveillance camera inside the hotel room that filmed the police entering were operated by him remotely from Britain, and that the images were beamed for 50 minutes before police found the projector.
China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters could not reach Chongqing’s public security bureau for comment and was unable to contact Mr Qi.
The protest took place days before the military parade in Beijing which was designed to project Mr Xi's power.
“The real significance lay in the continued willingness of fearless citizens to boldly and publicly criticise Chinese leader Xi Jinping and call for democratic reforms in the face of ever-growing government repression,” Ms Maya Wang, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Former migrant worker
Mr Qi told NYT that he was inspired by other protests, including a 2022 banner protest in Beijing before a major Communist Party meeting and nationwide “white paper” anti-government protests
He said he was for many years a drifting migrant worker in southern China, where he endured mistreatment and occasional detentions by police, before moving to Beijing and starting a small e-commerce business.
He said he became disillusioned with the government during strict pandemic lockdowns and wanted to protest against “blind patriotic education” in schools.
Patriotic education is mandated by law
Mr Qi said his brother and elderly mother, who remain in China, were threatened by police after the incident.
Images from the protest did not circulate on domestic Chinese social media, which is censored.
Public protests against the Communist Party are extremely rare, partly due to surveillance, online censorship and the government’s dismantling of free speech and grassroots activism. REUTERS
