A thread with a (very partial) list of examples of people the PRC government jailed for using this site for political speech that the owner of this site could raise if he cared as much about free speech in the PRC as he claims to care about it in Brazil. 1/13 A PRC court imprisoned Yao Yongsheng for reposting 29 tweets from the Twitter accounts of the "New York Times Chinese Network," "The American Embassy and
Consulates in China," and "Radio Free Asia." 2/13

Not only has Hu Xijin disappeared from social media, Sina Weibo is also censoring the hashtag of his name. The screenshot shows a search for "#胡锡进#" returns a notice: "According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, the content of this topic is not displayed." A🧵on Hu: This isn't the first time Hu Xijin has been censored by the PRC government. In 2015 Hu's “Hostile Overseas Forces Scheme to Incite the Post 80’s and Post 90’s Generations” (境外势力试图煽动八零后九零后) was censored, probably because it discussed the 1989 Tianmanmen demostrations

Just saw another useful foreign idiot displaying their ignorance of the law on VPN use in the PRC, and it reminded me I had meant to translate the official government documents justifying punishing the VPN user in this well-publicized case: . Here it is:theguardian.com/world/2023/oct… The police's punishment order makes it clear: using a VPN for otherwise legal activities (here, consulting) is by itself illegal, a violation of the "Interim Provisions on the Administration of International Networking of Computer Information Networks."

PRC comedian Li Haoshi (李昊石) is being investigated by police for telling this joke (my translation). Apparently the issue is his reference to dogs in conjunction with "have style and win battles," a PLA slogan. IANAPRCL, but PRC law is pretty clear you can't do that. . . . 1/4 I devote an entire appendix in my casebook "State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC" ssrn.com/abstract=41684… to examples of people being jailed for referring to police as "dogs" on social media. 2/4

1/8 A🧵on PRC Covid reporting on 12/24. Minimizing the number of reported Covid cases and deaths is important for the PRC, because PRC officials, such as Hua Chunying, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, have consistently used the high US Covid numbers for propaganda purposes. 2/8 It should therefore come as no surprise that after numbers began to spike, the PRC adopted a calculation method that minimizes the number of Covid cases and deaths. Here is how a PRC academic, Zhang Zhongxiang, Dean of MaYinchu School of Economics, Tianjin U., described it:

1/5 A thread on how PRC websites are censoring information and discussion relating to COVID deaths in mainland China. First, these screenshots show an English report by state-sponsored Sixth Tone was deleted within hours of publication. archive.vn/O4hv7 2/5 These screenshots show that Tencent deleted a WeChat post containing the minutes of a meeting of the National Health Commission. web.archive.org/web/2022122302….

1/5 The PRC said hanging insulting posters of Xi Jinping was "unacceptable for any diplomatic and consular missions of any country." So here's a🧵of pics from the 2012 protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. Here they burn a Japanese flag yards from the Embassy gate. 2/5 I was at the 2012 protests outside the Japan Embassy in Beijing, I saw hundreds, maybe thousands of people take part. Some of the signs in and around the protests were racist, such as this one saying "China should take action and kill the Japanese dogs."

1/11 A thread🧵about censorship of a video that began circulating on May 12 showing police threatening a couple that failure to cooperate will "follow you for three generations." A man is heard replying "This is our last generation, thank you." More here: taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4537413 2/11 These screenshots were taken on May 15, and show that a search for "This is our last generation" on Bing video returned several results with copies of the video, while the same search on Baidu video returned no results for that video.

1/9 Since people caught using VPNs in the PRC are typically punished directly by the police, I thought I'd do a thread explaining the powers the police have to mete out punishments for speech-related conduct. Standard caveat – I'm not a PRC lawyer and this isn't legal advice. 2/9 In the PRC the police can impose formal punishments, including ordering individuals to serve time in detention, without a trial before a judge. The legal basis for this is provided by the Public Security Administrative Punishments Law.

1/ 8 On May 10, 2022, an article by Gao Yusheng (高玉生), former PRC Ambassador to the Ukraine, was published on, and quickly censored from, PRC websites. The article explained why Russia is losing the war in Ukraine. Here's a thread showing examples of the PRC's censorship. 2/8 These screenshots show that Gao Yusheng's article explaining why Russia is losing the war in Ukraine was deleted from the Phoenix website within hours of it being posted and now shows a 404. Gao is the former PRC Ambassador to the Ukraine.

1/4 More evidence the PRC is censoring WHO Tedros' comment that zero Covid "will not be sustainable": These screenshots show Sogou's Weixin search returned 200+ results for "Tedros Zero" at 1 pm today. 2 hours later, only 19 results, all from central government mouthpieces. 2/4 Left screenshot shows at 1pm Sogou's Weixin search results were all from 2022, and no results were from govt. mouthpieces. Right screenshot taken at 3pm shows no results from 2022, and only results from Xinhua, People's Daily, Guangming Daily, and the China News Service.

1/25 Thanks to those who provided feedback on my tweet last week re: the (il)legality of VPNs in China. Apparently it was insufficiently nuanced for some folks, so here's a thread with more examples that also addresses some of the replies critical of my original thread. 2/25 First, however, I want to note I'm not a PRC lawyer, and this isn't legal advice. I am a US lawyer (California Bar) and published my first article on PRC Internet law in the IFLR in 2001, and I've spent over 15 years as a legal advisor in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Taipei.

1/9 If someone makes the claim that people in China are "not breaking any law" by using a VPN to access Twitter etc. from inside China, here's a thread you can share to demonstrate they are wrong with 3 screenshots and one court judgment. 2/9 These screenshots from a Zhejiang govt database show the police punish people for using VPNs under the "Public Security Administrative Punishments Law" for violating the "Interim Provisions on the Administration of International Networking of Computer Information Networks."

My casebook "State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC" is available for free download from my website: feichangdao.com. Over 100 indictments, court judgments, trial transcripts, and RETL and administrative punishment decisions in translation from 1998 to the present. The full title of the casebook is: "State Prosecutions of Speech in the PRC: Cases Illustrating the Application of National Security and Public Order Laws to Political and Religious Expression."