Teacher Li: The hunt for the cartoon cat vexing China’s censors

As anti-lockdown protests flared throughout China’s cities in November 2022, a whole bunch of 1000’s around the globe have been glued to an unlikely supply: a mysterious X account, fronted by a cartoon cat.

Protest footage, particulars about police actions, information of arrests – Trainer Li Is Not Your Trainer posted a torrent of real-time updates sourced from strange residents.

Little of it could possibly be discovered on China’s tightly-controlled state media or web. All of it was curated by one particular person, sitting in a bed room in Italy – an artwork faculty scholar named Li Ying.

Mr Li has since turn into a significant chronicler of knowledge deemed politically delicate by Beijing. His X account is a window into Xi Jinping’s China the place authorities’ vice-like grip on info retains tightening. From main protests to small acts of dissent, corruption to crime, it’s zealously scrubbed off the Chinese language web, solely to show up on Mr Li’s account.

He says this has earned him the wrath of the authorities and, in an interview with the BBC, he painted a transparent image of how Beijing pressures dissidents abroad. He alleged the Chinese language authorities is just not solely harassing him but in addition his mates, household and X followers in a coordinated marketing campaign of intimidation.

The Chinese language authorities has not responded to our questions and we’re unable to independently confirm all of Mr Li’s claims. However the techniques he detailed have been documented by activists, rights teams and different governments.

His activism was an accident, he informed the BBC over the telephone.

“It’s the Chinese language authorities’ unrelenting constriction of freedom of speech and media freedoms that has led me to slowly change from an strange particular person to who I’m at this time.”

Li’s on-line existence started with writing and posting love tales on Weibo, the Chinese language microblogging platform. “I used to be somebody who had made love my important inventive theme, I had nothing to do with politics,” the son of two artwork lecturers defined. Even the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which Beijing stamped out, hardly made an impression on him: “I used to be identical to many strange folks, I didn’t suppose that the protests had something to do with me.”

Then the pandemic struck. As China sealed itself off, Mr Li – by now learning at a prestigious artwork faculty in Italy – grew to become determined to search out out what was occurring again house. Scouring social media, he was shocked to examine the crushing lockdowns: “There have been folks ravenous, even leaping off buildings… the sensation on the time was of plenty of struggling and strain.”

He began discussing these tales on Weibo. Some followers privately despatched him their tales asking him to publish on their behalf, which he did. Censors took discover, and blocked his account.

Undeterred, he started a cat-and-mouse sport, organising a brand new Weibo account every time they shut one down. Fifty-three accounts later, he had sufficient: “I stated okay, I’m occurring Twitter.”

On X, unfettered by China’s censors, but accessible by way of digital personal networks, Mr Li’s following grew. Nevertheless it solely actually exploded, to greater than 1,000,000, in late 2022 throughout the White Paper protests towards China’s punishing zero-Covid measures.

His account grew to become an vital clearing home for protest info; at one level, he was deluged with messages each second. Mr Li hardly slept, fact-checking and posting submissions that racked up a whole bunch of tens of millions of views.

On-line loss of life threats from nameless accounts quickly adopted. He stated the authorities arrived at his mother and father’ house in China to query them. Even then, he was positive life would return to regular as soon as the protests died down.

“After I completed reporting on the White Paper motion, I believed that crucial factor I may ever do on this life was completed,” he stated. “I didn’t take into consideration persevering with to function this account. However simply as I used to be interested by what I ought to do subsequent, abruptly all my financial institution accounts in China have been frozen.

“That’s after I realised – I couldn’t return anymore.”

Fears about Chinese language espionage have been steadily rising within the West as ties with China bitter. What worries them are stories that Beijing is surveilling and pressuring its residents who reside in international jurisdictions. China has dismissed these allegations as “groundless and malicious defamation”, and stated it’s dedicated to defending the rights and security of its folks overseas.

However the accusations are mounting. Final 12 months US authorities alleged {that a} Chinese language police taskforce was utilizing social media together with X to harass Chinese language targets on-line, and charged dozens for “interstate threats”.

Australia is reportedly investigating a Chinese language espionage operation concentrating on residents and a former spy has told Australian media how he focused a political cartoonist in Cambodia and an activist in Thailand. Rights group Amnesty International found that Chinese language learning abroad who took half in anti-government protests have been being surveilled.

Analysts hint China’s so-called transnational repression again to the decade-old Operation Foxhunt to catch fugitive criminals. They imagine these techniques are actually used to focus on anybody abroad that Beijing deems a menace.

Mr Li believes there are sufficient indicators suggesting he’s now one in every of these folks. He stated the police confirmed up at an organization in China from which he had ordered artwork provides up to now, demanding his Italian delivery info. He obtained calls from somebody claiming to symbolize an European supply service and asking for his present deal with, although he had by no means positioned the order.

Particulars of his former deal with and telephone quantity have been printed on the messaging platform WeChat. A stranger turned up at his former house, asking to fulfill him as he wished to debate a “enterprise proposal”.

It’s not clear whether or not Chinese language authorities have been immediately behind these incidents. However this type of ambiguity may be intentional because it stokes “an ever-present concern of persecution and mistrust” in targets, stated Laura Harth, marketing campaign director for rights group Safeguard Defenders which recently highlighted Mr Li’s situation.

Beijing is accused of working with middlemen, resembling Chinese language businessmen based mostly overseas, so the federal government can later deny direct involvement. Safeguard Defenders alleges the one who confirmed up at Mr Li’s former house is a businessman linked to one in every of China’s controversial abroad police stations.

“Usually there are nationalists and patriotic individuals who work with the federal government in a tandem, symbiotic relationship,” stated Yaqiu Wang, China analysis director at Freedom Home. The pondering, she stated, is “if I do that for the authorities then it’s good for my enterprise”.

The strain has ramped up in latest months, Mr Li stated.

Authorities started surveilling and questioning his mother and father extra – at one level the visits occurred each day, he stated. Even officers from the college they used to work for requested them to influence Mr Li to cease.

“They’re interrogating everybody in China who’s linked to me, even WeChat contacts, making an attempt to know my life habits, perceive what sort of eating places I wish to go to,” he stated. One particular person was allegedly even pressured to admit he was Mr Li.

Followers on X have been telling Mr Li they’ve been requested to “drink tea” – a euphemism for police interrogations – for the reason that finish of final 12 months.

He estimated a number of hundred folks have been questioned and informed to unfollow him. Some folks have been proven lengthy lists of names purportedly of his followers, with one checklist working as much as 10,000 names, in accordance with Mr Li. He believes authorities did this to point out the size of their interrogations and intimidate him and his followers.

“In fact I really feel very responsible. They solely wished to know what’s going on in China, after which they ended up being requested to ‘drink tea’,” he stated. In February, he made these stories public with a warning on X – in a single day, greater than 200,000 folks unfollowed him.

It’s unclear how the authorities tracked down X customers in China, the place the app is blocked. Whereas some may have been recognized by way of their tweets, many would have tried to hide their identities.

It’s believable the Chinese language authorities requested for person particulars, stated Ms Wang. If that’s the case, X “needs to be clear” about whether or not it agreed to any such requests. X has but to reply to the BBC’s queries.

Shortly after Mr Li posted in regards to the interrogations, nameless accounts started flooding his inbox and X remark threads with spam. They despatched crude cartoons of his mother and father and pornographic content material; in latest weeks, he has obtained grotesque photographs from horror movies, and pictures and movies of cats being tortured – he stated it’s as a result of they know he loves cats. The BBC has seen screenshots of this.

These messages have hit a fever pitch in latest days, with one displaying up in his inbox each couple of minutes. This coincided with Mr Li’s posts associated to the Tiananmen bloodbath in 1989 forward of its anniversary on 4 June, a taboo subject for the Chinese language Communist Occasion.

Private details about him and his mother and father, together with their footage, have been posted on a web site promoted by nameless X accounts. The web site additionally alleges he’s working for the Chinese language authorities, in a seeming try and sow mistrust amongst his followers.

A test on the web site’s area discovered it was arrange in April and its registrant listed their location as China and Tasmania. Its IP deal with is hosted by a Hong Kong firm.

It’s not clear who’s behind all of this, however Mr Li stated it’s a “psychological assault” geared toward carrying down his nerves.

China is just not alone in going after abroad dissidents, stated political scientist Ho-fung Hung of Johns Hopkins College, pointing to comparable allegations towards India and Turkey. “As extra abroad communities turn into extra lively and social media connects them to folks again house, authoritarian governments more and more really feel diaspora communities can pose a menace to them,” he stated.

However in China’s case, he added, they’re stepping up their techniques due to “the rising paranoia of the Chinese language authorities” besieged by an financial slowdown and outward flows of cash and expertise.

Observers say this paranoia seems to be fuelling a uniquely intense repression of Mr Li. Ms Wang stated what was occurring to him had the indicators of a “nationwide, actually high-level plan”.

“He has turn into the aggregator which individuals ship info to, and that’s very scary to the authorities… he has a type of energy that no one else has had up to now.”

Wryly, Mr Li stated he could possibly be dubbed China’s “most harmful cat” – a reference to his X profile image, which he drew.

His authorities targets him as a result of he stymies their huge efforts to censor detrimental information, and likewise as a result of he represents a brand new technology of web savvy, politically acutely aware Chinese language youth, he stated. “What this White Paper protest technology represents is precisely the type of ideology they are not looking for everybody to see.”

His work has come at an infinite private value. He strikes regularly inside Italy, staying only some months in every location, and hardly leaves the home. He hasn’t discovered regular work, and survives on on-line donations and earnings from YouTube and X.

He lives alone together with his two cats, Guolai and Diandian. In earlier interviews he had talked about a girlfriend, however they’ve since parted methods. “I’m all on my own now,” he stated matter-of-factly. “There was an excessive amount of strain. However I don’t really feel lonely as a result of I work together with lots of people on social media.”

He admitted, although, that he’s feeling the psychological pressure of his scenario and the lengthy hours he spends on-line. “I really feel currently my capability to specific myself has dropped, and I’m very unfocused.”

Although he lately renewed his passport, he believes Chinese language authorities allowed this to maintain tabs on him. It’s a bitter present from his authorities – as soon as an avid traveller, he now feels trapped.

“I typically mourn [the life I could have],” he added. “Alternatively, I don’t remorse this.”

“I don’t see myself as a hero, I used to be solely doing what I believed was the fitting factor on the time. What I’ve demonstrated is that an strange particular person may do this stuff.” He believes that if his account shuts down, “naturally a brand new Trainer Li will seem”.

The considered getting arrested scares him, however giving up is just not an choice. “I really feel I’m an individual with no future… till they discover me and pull me again to China, and even kidnap me, I’ll proceed doing what I’m doing.”

By going public together with his allegations, he hopes to reveal the Chinese language authorities’s techniques. Nevertheless it’s additionally as a result of he believes they crossed a line by escalating their repression, and desires to combat again. “I submit one thing you don’t like, so that you crush me, that’s the technique of a mutual combat. However doing all this stuff to my mother and father, I actually don’t perceive it.”

Now, he’s making defiant plans to develop his operations, maybe recruiting others to affix his mission, or posting in English to widen his affect. The Chinese language authorities “is absolutely afraid of outsiders realizing what China is absolutely like… [Posting in English] is one thing they’re much more afraid of.

“They could really feel they’ve plenty of techniques, however I even have plenty of playing cards I can play.”