Chinese students abroad take on their government

A few days ago Ming, a student from mainland China, experienced what she calls a “wow moment”. For an online workshop about protest art, Ming had submitted photographs of posters denouncing the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s leader, Xi Jinping. The “wow” came when a fellow Chinese student posted a sympathetic comment about the submission. “You tend to assume that other Chinese students are pro-Communist Party and pro-Xi Jinping,” says Ming, who is 20 and has been studying in Britain for three years (like the names of others who are quoted in this article, Ming’s has been changed to conceal her identity). “It was surprising and encouraging to find people who support what you do.”

During the past month other Chinese students on Western campuses have been making similar discoveries. They have been meeting in chat groups on Telegram, a messaging app, and organising protests against their government. This has mainly involved putting up posters like the ones Ming uploaded for the workshop and posting pictures of them to Instagram, a video- and photo-sharing app. Related posters have appeared on 350 campuses in more than 30 countries, according to an administrator of Citizens Daily CN, an Instagram account to which people send sightings.