As China’s leaders gather in Beijing this week for the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an ideological war is under way on the country’s internet.
Since he came to power in 2011, Xi has sought to reshape the country in his image, advancing a new ideology to replace the waning relevance of Communism and Mao Zedong Thought in a country where state capitalism and an all-encompassing focus on making money is the norm.
“Unlike any other Chinese leader since the reform era, (President) Xi Jinping has worked on forging a uniquely Chinese national narrative,” write the authors of a new study by the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).
At the same time, the Party has “taken drastic measures to suppress ideas it considers hostile.”
Censorship fighter
Li Hongkuan is more experienced than most in battling the censors and pushing the boundaries of free speech in China.
From self-imposed exile in the US, he once ran VIP Reference, an online newsletter compiling banned news and political gossip that was sent to thousands of subscribers beyond the Great Firewall.
But censorship advances soon made that impossible, and for years Li was effectively cut off until the advent of WeChat, the uber popular messaging app used by millions of Chinese for everything from sharing photos to booking taxis and paying restaurant bills.
In sprawling group chats hundreds of members strong, with names like “Big Uncle’s Lecture Hall,” Li and dozens of others share news from dissident websites, messages of defiance and viral photos.
However, Li has become a casualty of a new type of internet censorship which intrudes into previously private areas where limited dissent — or at least discussion around dissent — was once tolerated.
New regulations have been introduced that crack down harshly on group chats, deputizing admins to police their friends’ conversations or face punishment.
Posts Li shares on the US version of the app are blocked from appearing in China, and he says he is now “banned from joining in group discussions.
