On Friday night in the Chinese city of Chongqing, an activist named Qi Hong staged a remarkable protest by projecting anti-Communist slogans on the side of a tall building.
The slogans included messages such as “No more lies, we want the truth. No more slavery, we want freedom,” “Only without the Communist Party can there be a new China,” “Freedom is not a gift, it must be seized back,” and “Down with red fascism, overthrow the Communist tyranny.”
Qi was able to keep the demonstration going for almost an hour before city police found and disabled his project – and then he surprised them again by uploading surveillance camera video of the police barging into the hotel room where the projector was located.
Qi’s videos became a huge sensation on social media, racking up millions of views as people marveled at his bravery and resourcefulness. He rented a hotel room and set up his projector days before staging his protest on Friday, then fled China with his wife and children, activating the projection system and security cameras by remote control. He was in the United Kingdom when the police came through the door of his hotel room.
“I set it up so I could trigger it remotely. I had booked the room for several days, and I told the staff it didn’t need room service. Then I left and went with my wife and children to the airport, and flew to Britain. Once I was there, I pressed play,” Qi told the Times of London on Tuesday.
When they finally found the hotel room, police discovered a polite handwritten note from Qi on a table that read: “Even if you are a beneficiary of the system today, one day you will inevitably become a victim on this land, so please treat the people with kindness.”
Not only did the police look a bit comical as they fumbled to find the projector, and seemed very confused by the absence of a projectionist, but the protest cleverly used the Chinese Communist Party’s massive surveillance state against it. Chongqing has a population of about 30 million, which means it has millions of spy cameras — and a large number of them wound up capturing Qi’s anti-communist slogans for posterity.
“Qi Hong outwitted the police, outmaneuvered the state machinery — and there was little they could do about it. It was incredibly cool,” declared popular online dissident Li Ying, better known by his account name “Mr. Li Is Not Your Teacher.”
https://twitter.com/whyyoutouzhele/status/1961459295813312811
Qi told the Times he was inspired by the “White Paper” protests against Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s coronavirus lockdowns, and by Peng Lifa, the “Bridge Man” who dared to hang banners with messages critical of the Communist Party from bridges in Beijing.
The timing of Qi’s protest was interesting, since the following days brought some major propaganda events for China, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the port city of Tianjin, and a massive military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of World War II in Beijing.
Qi cited the military parade as a major reason he triggered his carefully planned protest. He also criticized “blind patriotic education” in Chinese schools.
“I wanted to take this opportunity to make people aware that we should stand against tyranny. In particular, that students should stand up,” he said. “Anything might be the spark that lights the prairie fire.”
Qi said his mother and brother remained behind in China, and both of them have been harassed by police since he left the country.
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