In an intensification of Beijing's attempts to suppress critical speech, two prominent Chinese bloggers living in exile claim police are investigating their millions of followers on international social media platforms.
Former state broadcaster CCTV journalist Wang Zhi'an and artist-turned-dissident Li Ying, both Chinese citizens known for posting uncensored Chinese news, said in separate posts Sunday that police were interrogating people who followed them on social media, and urged followers to take precautions such as unfollowing their accounts, changing their usernames, avoiding Chinese-made phones and preparing to be questioned, reported The Associated Press.
"Currently, the public security bureau is checking my 1.6 million followers and people in the comments, one by one," wrote Ying.
Ying shared screenshots of private messages he received from followers over the last few months, all claiming the police had interrogated them and caused one person to lose their job.
As of Monday afternoon, Li had dropped to 1.4 million followers on X.
Both social media platforms, X and YouTube, are blocked in China. However, they can still be accessed with software that sidesteps the country's censorship systems.
The Past Decade:
Beijing continues to crack down on Chinese social media, censoring thousands within the Chinese state.
Users have voiced critical opinions online only to be called, harassed, or interrogated by police. Some are called in for questioning and ordered to take down posts or delete their accounts.
On occasion, users have been detained, spending up to two weeks in jail, or even sentenced to years in prison.
According to the AP, Beijing has expanded its reach to tracking non-Chinese platforms such as Facebook, Telegram, and X. A recent leak of documents shows that hackers created tools for police to infiltrate email inboxes and unmask anonymous users of X.
Li said he would not stop posting even if people unfollowed, but he urged his followers to take basic digital safety precautions.
"I don't want your life to be impacted just because you wanted to understand the real news in China," Li said in an additional post. "You only want to understand what's happening, but the price is quite high.
