Chinese woman who splashed ink on Xi poster resurfaces

December 2, 2020 Comments Off

Originally published by Taiwan News on December 2, 2020

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Video surfaced on Monday (Nov. 30) of a Chinese streamer who disappeared after splashing paint on a poster of Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) two years ago, with the woman saying she has been released from a mental hospital and is subject to ongoing government surveillance.

During a live online broadcast at 6:40 a.m. on July 4, 2018, in front of the Hainan Airlines office in Shanghai’s Lujiazui area, Chinese streamer Dong Yaoqiong (董瑤瓊),who goes by the Twitter handle “feefeefly,” announced that she was protesting Xi Jinping’s “authoritarian tyranny” and the Chinese Communist Party’s “mind control persecution.” She then splashed black ink on a portrait of the portly Chinese dictator and shouted “Oppose Xi Jinping authoritarian tyranny!”

By 3 p.m. that day, she posted a tweet saying, “There are a group of uniformed men outside my door. I will change my clothes and go out shortly. I have committed no crime. It is the organization that has harmed me that has committed the crime.” Her Twitter account then quickly disappeared, her video was no longer accessible, and she was not heard from again for two years.

On Monday (Nov. 30), Dong, now known by many as “Ink Girl” for her bold act of defiance, suddenly appeared in a video on Twitter. In the video, she said that she has been released from a psychiatric facility for the second time this year and assigned to work in a local government department.

She said that it was a job in name only and alleged that, in fact, it was a way for authorities to surveil her. Dong said her movements are tightly restricted and that her job consists of answering the phone and typing up documents.

Dong announced that she is taking to Twitter because “I don’t fear them, I’m not afraid of them.” She said that if they lock her up in a hospital again, she will accept her fate.

However, she declared that she is striving for her freedom, including her freedom to choose her job and friends. She stressed that all of her freedoms have been restricted.

Whenever she meets with another person, she claims the authorities call and question her about the encounter. Dong said that she has not even been able to contact her father and that it was activist Ou Biaofeng (歐彪峰) who informed her that her father had barely escaped death in a collapsed mine in Yuanjiangshan, Hunan.

Becoming noticeably distraught, Dong said that she would rather die than live this way. She said she is no longer able to handle the stress of being constantly monitored.

She then thanked her followers for watching, adding she does not know what the consequences of her post will be but that she is prepared for them.

Denying that she has suffered from any form of mental illness, she said that before she was detained she had been working at a stable job in Shanghai. She claimed that her coworkers could vouch for her normal mental state.

Dong said that she has had a clear state of mind throughout and began to explain that a psychiatrist in the hospital was apparently even questioning her need to be there when the footage suddenly cut off. The video itself was apparently taken down from Twitter.

However, the Twitter account Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) was able to download the video before it was taken down and reposted it that same day. On Tuesday (Dec. 1), the group posted it again with an English explanation of Dong’s plight.

2020年11月30日，#董瑶琼发视频，出精神病院后被当地政府安排工作，称没有行动自由，没有交朋友自由，声称现在已经没有了恐惧，精神处于崩溃边缘，宁肯 #被精神病院一辈子，也要发出自已的声音。也许这个视频后，她又会 #被强迫失踪，请关注。 https://t.co/EoQCuMbLKS pic.twitter.com/CWLeL65VzX — CHRD人权捍卫者 (@CHRDnet) November 30, 2020

Dong Yaoqiong released from psychiatric institution. Police arranged work for her & told her she has no freedom of movement & cannot make any friends. Dong said these arrangements are extremely depressing & she had to speak out. https://t.co/jPMrxKwK8b — CHRD人权捍卫者 (@CHRDnet) November 30, 2020