Chinese Netizens Are Tortured And Punished
For Leaking Information On Xi Jinping’s Daughter
Daddy Xi Is Not Happy
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
In China, netizens can be arrested for simply browsing
China’s Dirty Web—basically, the Dark Web for doxing sites.
Like many young internet users, netizens in China have formed subcultures on certain websites.
Some of these websites are hosted on foreign servers outside of China,
so authorities can’t shut them down as easily.
Some of these websites function as wiki database sites—that is,
users can contribute information on the site.
The Chinese Communist Party calls these wikis the “Esu Circle”. Esu means Vulgar.
One of the Esu Circle websites is Zhina Wiki. And just look at this homepage. Now that’s vulgar.
It started as a place where young netizens could share memes and throw shade at public figures like
celebrities and athletes. But in 2019, users on Zhina Wiki shared personal information
about Xi Jinping’s relatives: his brother-in-law Deng Jiagui, and his daughter Xi Mingze.
That leaked information included Date of Birth, Household Registration number,
and for Xi Mingze, her new name.
She allegedly had her name changed after getting her Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard University.
The only official photo of Xi Mingze is this Xinhua propaganda photo from the 90s.
And it’s not really a photo of her. It’s a photo of how great her dad is. Daddy Xi!
But that little girl
is now 28. And very few people actually know what she looks like as an adult.
Occasionally, alleged photos of her have been leaked.
This Daily Mail article from 8 years ago shows this photo,
but without citing a source. It’s most likely not her.
There’s also this photo, from thefamouspeople.com—also not a reliable source.
There’s also this photo from Getty Images, labeled as Xi Mingze, but
not confirmed that it’s the same Xi Mingze who’s the daughter of Xi Jinping.
And obviously none of these photos are the same person.
And this latest leak from the Zhina Wiki website is yet another unconfirmed photo.
Whether accurate or not, Daddy Xi is not pleased.
And in the typical communist style, the response to the leaked photo is pretty extra.
The Ministry of Public Security established a special task force. In the end they jailed
24 netizens for the information leak.
Which is crazy. When can you get 24 people to cooperate on anything?
The most severe sentence was given to 21-year-old computer prodigy
Niu Tengyu, who had made around 200 entries online. He was deemed the primary offender.
Niu Tengyu was sentenced to 8 years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking disturbances,”
5 years in prison for “infringing on citizens’ personal information,” and 2 years for “illegal
business operation.” His combined sentence is 15 years in prison, and the court decided to
implement a 14-year sentence with a 130,000 RMB fine—which is about 20,000 US dollars.
14 years in prison seems excessive for leaking a photo and some information—and
it wasn’t even embarrassing information.
Just imagine someone leaking information about the US president’s embarrassing child.
Twitter might freeze your account.
But you won’t go to prison.
Even Donald Trump eventually stopped hiding his embarrassing daughter.
And Xi Mingze is by all accounts well behaved and low key. So what’s such a big deal that
the people who allegedly leaked her information are going to prison?
Well, it’s hard to say. But the prison sentence isn’t even the worst part.
I’ll explain after the break.
Welcome back.
Niu Tengyu is the Chinese netizen who was sentenced to 14 years in prison
for allegedly leaking this photo and information about Xi Jinping’s daughter, Xi Mingze.
Visiting “Esu Circle” websites has not been punished by the judicial system before.
But this case is different because it involves Xi Jinping’s family.
And that’s also why Chinese lawyers are reluctant to represent Niu Tengyu.
This handwritten letter from Niu Tengyu was released by an anonymous friend or colleague. It’s
about how the authorities tortured him to confess. ￼
It says: “Around January 2020, I was forced to write ‘confessions’ on a few hundred pages of
A4 paper. I wrote tens of thousands of words. All of the content I wrote was required by the police,
and I was forced to make up and fabricate things that are non-existent, deliberate fabrications
according to their demands. I had to write enough pages within a given timeframe following the
titles and outlines they demanded. When failing to do so, I was allowed to eat nothing but rice,
I was deprived of sleep, and I was hung up and beaten. Between December 10, 2019, and January 20,
2020, I slept less than 30 hours in total, and I was crippled by beating.
I’m hereby stating that all these documents were fabrications under duress,
and they do not represent my own opinion, and much of them are not true.”
According to Niu’s mother, the police tortured him
to get him to confess to being the ringleader behind the leak.
She also said that one of Niu’s arms has been permanently injured
and he was beaten until he was unconscious several times.
I know what you’re thinking: That’s an excessive amount of torture.
But remember, he’s a dangerous terrorist. He posted a photo on the internet. Allegedly.
And I say allegedly because it might not have been Niu Tengyu at all.
The founder of one of the Esu Circle websites has testified that Niu Tengyu wasn’t actually
involved in the information leak, but is just a scapegoat.
After all, there’s no way to verify that Niu Tengyu was the one who found
Xi Mingze’s information in the first place. According to Xiao Yanrui, who started several
of the Esu Circle websites, the data may have been shared online by...corrupt police officers.
Xiao says the administrators of the Zhina Wiki website, where the information was
actually leaked, are based overseas. So the authorities chose to blame Niu Tengyu instead.
Even though Niu was not posting on Zhina Wiki. He was posting on a different website, Esu Wiki.
And according to Xiao, the information about
Xi Jinping’s relatives was not even posted on Esu Wiki.
Xiao also said that Niu had traveled with him to Hong Kong to see the protests back in 2019.
So...this could have been about punishing him for visiting the Hong Kong protests,
while at the same time covering up police behavior? Hmmm.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a viewer who supports China Uncensored on Patreon.
Bruce Johnson asks: Chris, what's your general impression of the
post Trump/mid pandemic world as it relates to China's future? It seems between Trump
and the CCP's handling of the Coronavirus, the cat is out of the bag. How much will all this
impact China's trajectory of becoming a true super power and rival of the US?
Well, Bruce: The good news is that through the pandemic, a lot of people are waking up to the
problems with the Chinese Communist Party—from their initial cover up that caused the spread,
to the hostile mask diplomacy, to the ineffective Chinese vaccines.
Even some governments are getting tougher on the CCP, like the UK and Australia.
In terms of post-Trump, it’s hard to say. We’ve only had a few weeks of post-Trump, and it’s not
yet clear what the Biden administration is going to do on China. They’ve said some tough things,
they’ve said some cooperative things. But ultimately it’ll be actions that count.
But the best way to prevent the CCP from being a true super power
is simple: Stop giving them money. That’s it. Stop investing in their bonds. Stop buying their
products. Stop watching their stupid panda videos. And if we all do that, the CCP will not survive.
Thanks for your question, Bruce.
Be like Bruce and join us on Patreon. Go to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored to learn more.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.